Haruno Sakura: Crystal Technique!
by Outcast001
Summary: Sakura is sick and tired of being the weakest of team 7, what will measures will she take to change that? and what is this new ability?
1. Realization and the Decision

**This is my second Sakura fanfic, I hope you like it! R&R! please! I would appreciate it!**

* * *

A lone girl stood on a small bridge, leaning against the railing, peering down at her reflection in the water. Her pink mid-back length hair swaying in the light breeze, she sighed, her green eyes deep in thought.  
The girl and her team had just got back from river country, it had gone from a C class to an A class or higher.

She continued to gaze at her rippling reflection, she couldn't believe herself. Sasuke and Naruto had fought, _they_ were strong, _they_ useful, _they_ were _ninja's._ She was just a girl with two personalities and who knew all the answers, she chuckled lightly, and a fat load of good that did; once they were in life threatening situations her mind goes blank and she turns into a scared little girl.  
_'Cha! Come on Sakura! What about the hunter nin? You were the only one to notice their trap! And what about that tree running exercise? We beat them first try!' _her inner yelled inside her, she sighed.

'_But what about when the hunter nin attacked? I was protected and couldn't do a thing. What about during the Mist nin attack? And how about the attack on the bridge? I'm pathetic; I couldn't do a thing, useless…_ she thought as she shifted her eyes to the sky, it was the opposite of how she felt; the sky was happy and cloudless while she was sad and her mind was unclear.

She pulled out a kunai and looked at her reflection in the sharp blade, her sad eyes staring back at her, how could she possibly change? She was so weak, how could she get stronger?

The realization struck her like lightning and her mind began to clear, the mist fading to reveal the answer. Her eyes hardened in determination in the reflection and she made her way to the nearest tree, she had to start somewhere right?

Two hours later, the sun was setting, and Sakura was still at it, wiping the sweat from her brow she huffed proudly. She had gotten so far; she nodded to herself before channeling her chakra to her feet, she then began walking up the tree until she was upside down on a branch. Sitting crossed-leg upside down she looked at the world from this new angle, it seemed easier to think from this position. She closed her eyes as she thought about what would happen tomorrow.  
Normally she would go to the bridge with Naruto and Sasuke and wait for Kakashi; after that they would train, well Naruto and Sasuke would train, Kakashi would tell her to observe the fight or something. That was it; they never risked her getting hurt and never let her push herself to her limit.

She felt two people drawing near, she couldn't tell whom they were but she remained still and soundless, not opening her eyes. She listened as they talked, they were male, and they talked about training using taijutsu only.

"Now listen Lee, I want you to break that tree in one kick!" the older sounding man told, what she guessed, his disciple. She listened as the younger one responded eagerly.

"Yes Guy-sensei!" the younger boy yelled and she heard him move. She felt the vibration as the tree she was sitting on began to fall; she opened her eyes and jumped from the branch and landed a few feet away on sold earth as the tree hit the ground with a loud _'crack'_ resounding through the air.

"Oh I am so sorry miss! I didn't notice you!" the boy, Lee, called panicking.

"Your not hurt are you miss?" the teacher, Guy, asked in a concerned tone. She didn't know why but that tone irritated her. She stood up and smiled as she turned to them, bowing slightly Sakura apologized to them before moving to go home.

"Wait! What's your name?" Lee asked and Sakura turned back to them.

"I'm Sakura Haruno," she said.

"Sakura? What a beautiful name for a beautiful girl! My name is-"

"Lee" Sakura cut in and Lee looked amazed.

"Yes, how did you know?" he asked awe struck.

"Your mentor said your name while I was in the tree" she said nodding to the Lee lookalike. He seemed surprised before the large man began laughing, the loud and bellowing sound didn't die down for a while.

"Very good observations Sakura! The power of youth burns strongly within you! Tell me who is your mentor?" he asked looking proudly at her, Sakura blushed slightly at the compliment.

"Kakashi Hatake" she said and both eyes grew wide, it seems that she said something wrong.

"Ha, of course my lifetime rival would have such a capable ninja as his student!" he exclaimed happily, Lee looked very excited.

"Beautiful cherry blossom, tell me, how long have you been training, not to be rude but you look exhausted" Lee said as he took notice of the scratches and bruises littering her skin, Sakura looked at her arms and realized that, yes, she did have scratches and bruises, _many_ of them.

"Oh I have just been training for about… two hours I think, I've been working on my chakra control, and didn't really take notice until now" Sakura said as she sat down on a nearby boulder. Guy was overjoyed at the prospect; he liked students that pushed themselves.

"Brilliant! You must have trained very hard Sakura-Chan!" Lee exclaimed and it was as he said those words that Sakura began to feel the weight of her training, she was _exhausted_ and could use a good bath. The boys got to work on there training and it was entirely taijutsu based; which she was horrible at, suddenly an idea struck her.

"Excuse me Guy-sensei" she called and they both paused as she addressed the older ninja.

"Sakura I'm not your teacher, you don't have to call me sensei," he said in good nature and Sakura suddenly felt nervous, she looked down slightly.

"Well, that's just it… could you teach me taijutsu?" she said quickly and it took awhile for both to translate what she said. They looked at each other, Lee turned back to Sakura.

"What about your current sensei?" he asked and Sakura had to physically stop herself from flinching. It's true she had her own teacher and he did compliment her on her intellect but he didn't teach her secret or special techniques or how to counteract a technique, and he didn't cast her proud looks like he did the others, he practically ignored her and focused on the other two.  
_'So much to teamwork and comradeship'_ Sakura thought bitterly.

"He's busy training the other two, he has no time for me and its greatly affecting my abilities" she admitted and Lee took a look of understanding while Guy had a mix of anger and sadness, he didn't like how Kakashi was treating this young flower.

"Very well, meet me here tomorrow afternoon, after you're scheduled training with your team and we'll start your training with Lee" Guy said in a firm but happy voice, Lee looked positively thrilled. Sakura beamed at them both.

"Thank you Guy-sensei!" she exclaimed and bowed deeply, she stood strait and smiled brightly. They could see the fire shining strongly in her eyes, Guy immediately knew he had made the right choice in taking her under his wing and he was going to give Kakashi a piece of his mind.

"Ok, Lee we'll have to cancel today. I have to talk with Kakashi," he said but Sakura panicked at what he said.

"No! Please don't tell Kakashi-sensei, I don't want him to know, not yet at least," she pleaded and he could see what was going on, if Kakashi found out he would probably try and stop her. He nodded and said his goodbye before leaving, Lee offered to walk her home and she graciously accepted.

When she got home she bid a farewell to Lee and entered her home, it was empty again. She walked into the kitchen and picked up the note she knew would be on the dining table, she read it quickly.

_Dear Sakura_

_We have business in wave country and will be gone for at least a month or so; we've left plenty of food for you to cook and left some extra cash, we will miss you and hope everything goes well._

_Mum & dad._

Sakura sighed, crumpled the letter, and threw the parchment into the bin. She moved into her room and grabbed her pajamas; she moved into her adjacent bathroom and took a good shower, she let the water rinse away the stress and troubles of the day.

She went back into her room, hair washed and in a tight plat; she went under the warm covers and soon fell asleep.

The next morning she woke up a little sore but otherwise ready for the day, she brushed her hair and put her clothes on, staring at the mirror she felt something was off. The clothes were pretty but they weren't practical, she had dressed this way for Sasuke's attention, but this did nothing for her. If she wanted to be a ninja she was going to have to put love in the backseat while she pursued her ninja career, she went back to her closet and rummaged for some suitable clothes.

She looked in the mirror again and grinned victoriously. She was wearing a black sports bra, double layered, with a red short sleeved jacket that stopped at her ribs; it was white rimmed and had the Haruno clan symbol on the back. She had her hair in a high ponytail but some bangs fell out and framed her face nicely, she had her Hitai-ate attached to a strong brown fabric belt that hung off her waist. She wore black just-above-the-knees tight breathable shorts, she was wearing her ninja sandals and her kunai pouch was attached firmly to her thigh, her lower back pouch contained a few scrolls that she hoped she could use later on.

Walking away from the mirror she went down stairs to the kitchen, after making a healthy omelet and having a glass of milk she washed her dishes. She looked at the clock and realized if she didn't get her ass moving she would be late! She ran out the door and dodged the crowed as she made her way to team sevens meeting place.

When she got there she saw Naruto and Sasuke were waiting patiently, they both looked at her with opposite expressions; Naruto looked happy albeit a little concerned at her tardiness while Sasuke just looked annoyed.

"Hey Sakura-Chan! Your late, where were you?" he asked and Sakura waved to him before taking her place at the bridge.

"Sorry about that, my alarm was a little off so I woke up a bit late" she said and noticed were looking at her oddly, she looked back and forth between the two.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked and they simultaneously looked from her new outfit to her face. Naruto chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head, blushing slightly.

"You changed your outfit," he stated and Sakura visibly relaxed, she thought there was something actually wrong. She smiled at Naruto.

"Yeah, while the dress was pretty it wasn't practical, its easier to move in this and I'm more comfortable in it as well" Sakura explained smiling, but her smile fell when she heard someone scoff behind her. She turned to Sasuke with a perplexed and somewhat hurt expression.

"What?" she asked and he practically glared at her.

"Annoying, your just trying to look good in front of me" he stated like it was obvious, Sakura bristled at his words. What an arrogant jerk! What did she even see in this guy?  
_'Cha! You said it, are we just going to let him down talk us like that? HELL NO!_ Inner Sakura yelled and Sakura agreed. She glared at her _former_ crush.

"Now you listen up you arrogant prick! As impossible as it is for you to comprehend, I _am_ taking my ninja training seriously! You were the last thing on my mind when I switched my clothes you self-centered ass! You have no right to judge me like that and next time you treat me like that I'll kick your face into the ground!" Sakura yelled at him. Everything became silent, a blank kind of silence that had nothing in it, but Sakura continued to glare at Sasuke, waiting for his response.  
Naruto was in a state of shock but soon broke out of it laughing and grinning like there was no tomorrow. Sasuke was still immobilized.

"You said it! Way to go Sakura-Chan!" Naruto cheered and Sakura's glare changed into a victorious smirk, she had just silenced the great Sasuke Uchiha! Sasuke just glared at her.

"Whore" he hissed and that prudent silence took place once again, only this time it had a sense of foreboding. This caused Naruto to take a wise step back from the angered pinkette. Sasuke just smirked, he knew she would never hit him and that her words were all talk; he had won.  
Sasuke felt a sudden and intense pain in cheek as Sakura's foot made contact with his face, he flew backwards and crashed into a tree at least six meters away, the tree splintered but did not break. Sasuke stared at Sakura with shock as the chakra in her raised foot dissipated, she gently set her foot back onto the wood surface of the bridge as she looked at him with a mock happy expression.

"I told you 'next time you treat me like that I'll kick your face into the ground' right? You should've listened to my warning Sasuke-_kun_" she said in a sickly sweet voice, Naruto cautiously walked up to her and, deeming it safe, praised her.

"Nice kick Sakura-Chan! Right in the face to!" he yelled in pure delight, he never knew Sakura could be so strong. They all heard a small 'pop' and looked up to one of the many gates of the bridge.

"Sorry I'm late-" he paused as he noticed Sasuke missing, movement caught his eye and he turned to see Sasuke making his way to the bridge. He saw the painful looking bruise forming on his cheek and the splintered wood on a nearby tree.

"Did you finally get a punch in Naruto?" Kakashi asked turning to the two on the bridge and he saw the irritated look on Sakura's face, Naruto shook his head.

"No, Sakura-Chan got him!" he said proudly and Kakashi's visible eye widened. He looked at the only female member and finally took notice of her new outfit; he turned back to Sasuke.

"Is this true Sasuke?" the older ninja asked and all he got was a grunt for confirmation of the events that conspired just before his arrival. He wondered what could possibly cause Sakura to hit Sasuke, Naruto sure no problem but _Sasuke_? His questions would have to wait; he needed to focus on the current task.

"Ok then, I have good news!" he said and everyone perked up at this.

"You will all be learning a new technique!" he announced and Naruto was first to react.

"Hell yeah! What are we learning Kakashi-sensei?" he questioned and Kakashi smiled. Pointing to the water beneath them, he smiled.

"You're going to learn how to walk on water," he stated and everyone paused, processing what their sensei just told them.

"What?" Naruto asked and Kakashi showed them, jumping down he landed on the water with a few ripples the only indication he landed on the water at all.

"This technique is a more advanced form of the tree climbing exercise, water walking is more difficult and will take longer to learn" he looked to the two boys but overlooked Sakura, she would be able to do it easily compared to the boys.

They all nodded and moved to the waters edge, Naruto tried first; barely concentrating his chakra he leaped into the water, predictably all he did was cause a large splash and he scrambled out of the water, coughing slightly when he reached the shoreline.

"Its harder than it looks" he muttered and Sasuke scoffed, while he didn't leap into the water he did manage about three feet before meeting the same fate as Naruto. Sakura focused her chakra carefully and stepped onto the waters surface, she was a bit wobbly at first but she adjusted her chakra and after a few steps she was standing comfortably in the middle of the creek. The boys stared at her. One looked at her with admiration and praise, one with a proud gaze and the last with an irritated stare.

"Well done Sakura, you boys need more practice," he said before 'poofing' away. Sakura stayed and helped the boys as best she could and eventually they were able to walk on water. They left shortly afterwards, and just in time because shortly afterwards Guy and Lee made their appearance, the mid-day sun shining down on them.

"Ah, young cherry blossom of youth! Are you ready to train?" Guy asked and Sakura nodded eagerly.

"Yes Guy-sensei!" she said loudly and he nodded before turning around and strutting away.

"To the village wall!" he yelled as Lee and Sakura moved to catch up to him, Lee complimenting her new style and they chatted amiably together. When they got there Guy turned to the duet.

"Lets start with one hundred laps!" he said in a very Guy-like way. Sakura stared at him and Lee noticed her distress.

"Uh, Guy-sensei maybe not that many, Sakura is no doubt not used to our training" Lee said and Guy went into a thinking pose.

"That's true-" he was cut off.

"Oh no don't worry about me, how am I meant to get stronger if everyone goes easy on me? I may not be able to run a hundred laps but I'll try my best!" she enthused and Guy cried tears of joy.

"Oh the fire of youth burns strongly in you! How I wish I had you as my student, Kakashi is clearly ignorant of your potential. But not to worry! I will not neglect you like so many! Let us go!" he cried running along the wall. Lee cried out in joy, chasing after his mentor.

"Come cherry blossom! Let us not disappoint him!" he called and Sakura ran after them. She did her best but was overlapped many times by the time they hit the hundredth marker, by this then she was panting and just about ready to collapse. The boy's seemed barely fazed by the run; they smiled and praised her.

"Well done Sakura-Chan! You did very well for your first time! Every time we saw you running you was giving it your all!" Lee yelled while Guy laughed loudly.

"Yes! If you keep this up you should be able to keep up with us in a few for weeks!" he exclaimed, Sakura smiled and stood strait on shaky legs.

"I'll do my best," she panted before waving a goodbye and making her way home, her legs ached with every step she took but eventually made it to her humble abode. Skipping the shower and not even changing clothes she collapsed onto the bed and immediately fell into a deep slumber.

* * *

**Good? Bad? Please Tell me!**


	2. It Begins

**Sorry it took so long but I've been busy with my other stories, trying to think of a conclusion to my one shot series and trying to keep up with everything else is getting difficult. But I'll try my best! enjoy!**

* * *

She woke up the next morning feeling sore and stiff, every time she moved some part of her body cramped and it was very painful. Making her way to the bathroom she turned the knob and filled the tub with soothing oils for her cramps and scented essences to help with the smell, when the tub was full of the steaming water she undressed and plunged into the tub. At first it was painful with all her cramps but her body soon relaxed and the soreness drifted away with the steam. After Kami knows how long she finally got out of the tub and got changed into her knew outfit.

She was _starving_ since she didn't have lunch or dinner yesterday; she made breakfast and made a simple lunch box of rice, steamed veggies and meat. Taking a bottle of water she made her way to the meeting place for her team, as usual Sasuke was there but Naruto was late along with Kakashi.

An awkward silence bloomed between the two, Sakura would glance at him a few times to find him glaring at her. This continued until she finally cracked, with a frustrated sigh she turned to him.

"What?" she asked with a huff and he stood strait from his leaning position.

"What made you change?" he asked, she faltered. Wait, what? She looked at him quizzically.

"Huh?" was her intelligent answer; he sighed and gave her a hard look.

"Never mind" he muttered before going back to leaning against the railing, staring at the water. Sakura tilted her head slightly before shrugging and waiting patiently. Naruto eventually came and then Kakashi, he tested them on water walking and when he was convinced he pulled the two boys into a sparing match, not even giving her anything to do as he watched on with that look of immeasurable pride and praise. She huffed silently before moving to a separate clearing, no even noticed she left.

She gazed at the sky as she listened to their spar in the next clearing over; she clenched her fists in frustration. It's _always_ them, _they_ always get the special techniques, and_ they_ always get the appraising looks, _they_ who are always commented on their growth. She raised her fist and crashed it against the earth below her, her added chakra causing a small crater where she stood. She felt a small prick in her hand; lifting her hand from the rubble she inspected her open palm.

A small green crystal lay in her palm; her chakra senses told her it was pure chakra, she stared at it for a long time before she tried a little experiment. She pushed some chakra into the small crystal and it grew in size, glowing slightly.

She picked it up between her middle and forefinger and inspected it further, she tried pulling at it with her chakra; it shrank in in size this time. Looking to make sure no one was watching she then threw the small crystal near a tree, the crystal imbedded itself deep into the wood.  
Strange, she could still feel the crystal; she tried tweaking the crystal from where she was standing. Now she didn't expect anything to happen and she definitely didn't expect it to explode inside the trunk, she ducked slightly; moving her arms up, she waited but when nothing came she checked the damage. A small crater three times the size of the crystal scared the trunk, there were remnants of her chakra but that wasn't her concern at the moment.

"Not bad boys, what do you think Sakura?" Kakashi turned from the worn out boys to find the pinkette missing, strange he didn't sense her leave. He turned to the boys to see the same perplexed looks on their faces; they were all about to go looking for her when she showed herself from the trees behind Kakashi. She smiled sheepishly at them.

"Sorry, I was practicing my chakra over the other clearing" she said and everyone relaxed, they thought something had happened to her and she was hurt or kidnapped. She went over and grabbed her lunch box and dug in, eating quickly she closed the box lid and sighed. She was so glad she let her mum teach her how to cook; she looked over to the boys that were staring at her. She looked at the sun; if they didn't leave soon they would see Guy and Lee.

"Are we done today?" she asked and they all snapped out of whatever trance they were in. Kakashi coughed slightly, looking at the boys he nodded to them.

"You boys can go home," he said and Naruto immediately ran for Ichiraku's while Sasuke walked home or wherever he went, he turned to Sakura and walked up to her.

"Sakura, is there something you want to talk about?" he asked but she caught the underlining meaning _'what are you not telling me' _but she wasn't ready to give up her secret just yet. She shook her head lightly, carelessly placing her hands together behind her back.

"No, not really" she said in a carefree tone, she hoped he got the message _'not yet'_ and just left it at that. His one visible eye narrowed slightly and adrenaline shot through her at the idea of being forced to admit her secrets, but he seemed to accept her decision and she heard a 'pop' as smoke replaced where he once stood.  
As the smoke cleared Lee and Guy came into view, she smiled at them and walked up to them.

"Hello Lee-kun, Guy-sensei" she said and they returned her greetings with their own.

"So where are we going today?" she asked and Guy smiled at her enthusiasm, he guided them to a large clearing.

"Today I'm going to test you on your taijutsu, Lee you'll be facing Sakura, I want you both to do your best" he said and they both nodded, Lee seemed a bit hesitant but he stood ready nonetheless. Facing each other they waited for Guy's signal.

"Fight!" he called and Lee ran towards Sakura, she knew of his strength so she knew better than to try and block his attacks. She ducked under his straight punch and swiped kicked his legs out, he fell but caught himself and jumped out of the way of her downward kick. It went like this for some time, he would throw punches and she would dodge and counter attack, which he would block, dodge or recover. But he was holding back and it annoyed her to no end, finally having enough she evaded another strait punch but grabbed his arm and, using his own momentum, threw him over her shoulder. He landed on the ground hard but she didn't give him time to recover, twisting his arm behind his back and pinning a knee into his lower back this ensured he wouldn't be able to move without dislocating his shoulder and inflicting pain into his spine.

"Surrender?" she asked through panted breaths, she saw Lee's pained and surprised look. He nodded and she let go, lying on her back as she caught her breath she smiled slightly, Guy came forward and congratulated Sakura on her victory.

"Well done Sakura! You saw that he underestimated you and used that to your advantage! Lee you didn't want to hurt Sakura and went easy on her, this caused you to fail, never go easy on an opponent!" he chastised the younger lookalike. Lee looked down in shame before looking up at Sakura.

"I am sorry for not treating you like a proper opponent, next time I will not hesitate!" he yelled, determination lacing his words. Sakura nodded and smiled at him.

"Sure, I'll do my best" she assured before turning to her second sensei, he nodded proudly.

"Yes! Now Lee do 200 hundred push-ups as punishment! Sakura I want you to practice your punches on that tree over there" he indicated to a nearby tree, she nodded and made her way to said tree and began punching it in timed and spaced pattern. When Lee hit his two hundredth marker Guy called them back again, nodding to Sakura he addressed her.

"Sakura, you've done well. You should head home now, you're not used to our training sessions, we'll see you tomorrow!" Guy said as he dumped a rock on Lee and told him to do another hundred push-ups. Sakura nodded, not envying the young taijutsu master, and made her way to the clearing she had visited before. It was in the same direction as her home so they didn't question her.

She arrived again and it was late afternoon, she brought her palm up to her view, clenching her hands into fists she focused her chakra into one spot, once she felt the hardened material in her hand she opened her palm to see a chakra crystal.

Sakura experimented with the chakra crystals, every now and again it would shatter or explode or just shrink and disappear, and it continued for many hours. Eventually it got to sunset and Sakura was low on chakra, she knew she wouldn't get much more so she headed off into town, she felt like going to that nice sushi and dumpling place.  
She took the road that leads to the small restaurant, which she remembered was called Amai kenkō, and passed the Kage Library along the way. She paused mid-step; she had never heard of chakra crystallizing like hers had, maybe the library could help her.

Entering the large building she went strait towards the door at the end of the library guarded by two Anbu. She stated her name when they asked for it, after a few seconds she was allowed entry, she went inside and scanned the clipboard. The clipboard directed her to the chakra section; scanning the titles, she poured through scroll after scroll, anything that may hint her to what she had discovered and if it had been recorded.

She must have been searching for hours but she found nothing on the crystallization of chakra, but she had found some really interesting techniques in the utilization of chakra.  
Picking those up she began to move through the rest of the shelves, picking anything that caught her interest and reading through it; she found an explosive katon jutsu scroll, a scroll on battling with ninja wire, some healing scrolls, a large scroll on the human body and the chakra systems, taijutsu technique scrolls and one scroll on the introduction of sealing and protection seals.

Her hands were very much full but she was glad she had a sealing scroll in her pocket; grabbing said scroll she sealed most and carried the rest, she was asked to reveal what she had taken and showed everything to them, the Anbu were surprised by her large amount but didn't comment.  
She went to the front desk and after having her register and catalog them she left with her desired scrolls and if she hurried she would be able to grab some dumplings from Amai kenkō!

The sun had risen but Sakura had not slept a wink, even now she wasn't tired, she had spent the whole night studying her scrolls and was currently looking at the chakra flow chart spread out on the ground, many scrolls scattered about her room.

' _So this chakra point can be redirected to-'_ her thoughts were interrupted as a tapping sound was heard on her window. Turning around she found her sensei standing on her balcony, she opened the sliding glass door and addressed him.

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?" she asked and he gave her a worried look.

"Training started two hours ago" he stated and Sakura's eyes widened, her eyes moved to her clock and it showed that it was long past the meeting time.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei, I was studying and lost track of time," she said as he looked past her into her paper-covered room, there were notes and scrolls everywhere. He picked up a random piece of paper; its title was _'redirecting chakra flow' _he looked at her, she looked like she hadn't slept all night and knowing his student that was probably the case.

"I see, I want you to rest for a few days, it looks like you've had a rough night," he said before placing the paper down and turning to leave. Sakura was surprised by this, but didn't question it, this would just give her time to study more and practice on her own. She had panicked slightly when he picked up a sheet, but it luckily wasn't about chakra crystallization or anything similar.

"Okay, if you say so Kakashi-sensei" she said before turning back to the flow chart, she felt Kakashi leave and turned to confirm that he had actually left. Once she was confident he had left she had a shower and made her way to her clearing, avoiding Kakashi's detection. While she passed the boys she heard Kakashi speak to them.

"Now listen, I'm going to teach you each a special technique understand?" he asked and they both nodded.  
Special technique? Each of them would get their own?

"What about Sakura?" Naruto asked and Kakashi sighed, pulling out his favorite novel his posture slacked.

"All the techniques I could teach her are to strong for her" he stated and it seemed to answer Naruto's question enough for him to accept it. Naruto was being taught how to use his Kage Bunshin to his fullest and mix up jutsu's with them while Sasuke was being taught some type of lightning technique. She struggled to keep her chakra hidden as her rage increased; she could finally take no more and moved away to her clearing.

She continued practicing her chakra crystal technique and discovered a few things.

1:She could move it and manipulate its shape without touching it.

2:It could explode if she did something with her chakra, she figured out how but has yet to find out what she actually does to her chakra to give it that explosive effect.

3:She can always sense where even the tiniest shard is.

4:The crystals can be used to stop bleeding and heal wounds at a radical speed.

So far this is all she has discovered but she knows there is a lot more and what she has discovered will open up a range of abilities for her. She heard a long silence and she realized they had left, moving to the bridge where she and her team meet she waited for Guy and Lee. When they came she smiled at them.

"Lee, Guy-sensei its good to see you" she said and Guy gave her a warm greeting, as did Lee, and he sprouted things about 'the power of youth' and how she and Lee were the best students he ever had. They made there way to the wall and did one hundred laps, again.

"Well done Sakura! You were almost able to keep up with us that time" Guy said proudly, Lee nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Yes! You're improving very quickly Sakura-Chan!" Lee commented and Sakura practically glowed in happiness at their praise, she even started doing extra laps, the boys joined her as they did another twenty laps that lasted into the night.

"Good night Lee-kun, good night Guy-sensei!" Sakura called as she entered her house and went to bed. Lee and Guy waved at her, Lee turned to Guy happily but his smile and words faded when he saw the look on his sensei's face.

"Guy-sensei, what is it?" he asked but Guy didn't look at him, still staring at the blossoms door, but he did answer his question.

"How could Kakashi not see her potential, and more so not act upon it?" he said before turning and heading home, Lee looked back and forth from the house to his retreating mentor. He didn't get it but he had a feeling he would understand soon enough, he just had to be patient.

The next few days went similar to that day; she would spend most, if not all, of the night reading new and old scrolls and wrote down notes as she went, then she would go and practice any and all her skills in secret before going with Lee and Guy to enhance her physical abilities.  
By the end of the week she felt as though she had earned the right to wear her Haiti-ate and the right to call herself ninja, she walked to the bridge a good hour early.  
She would practice a knew technique of hers, she went into the trees and place a chakra crystal by a birds nest before she jumped down and walked back to the bridge. She created a crystal slightly bigger than her palm and focused her energy into it muttering _secret chakra technique: Crystal eye_ in her mind and the nest came into view within the crystals fame, she watched the mother bird come and feed its chicks before flying off again to find food.

She retrieved her chakra from the tree, she can reabsorb her crystals, and spent the remainder of her time trying out her sliding on water technique; it was like ice skating only the water isn't frozen, by tweaking her chakra a certain way she could glide across the water, she had yet to figure out how to do it on land.

A while later Sasuke showed up, then Naruto, and finally Kakashi, he popped out smiling. Before Naruto could yell at him for being late he told us the latest news.

"There's a new Make-Out book coming out!" he said happily, showing them the whole page add in a magazine, Naruto fell where he stood while Sakura and Sasuke sweat-dropped.

"Besides that we have another mission" he said looking at them one by one, Naruto was ecstatic, Sasuke had a smirk on and Sakura looked intrigued. He sighed, he didn't want Sakura to go on the mission but there was no choice in the matter, he didn't even know why the Hokage had ordered them on this mission.

"You'll all be briefed when we get to Kage tower, lets move!" he said and everyone ran to Kage tower, well the boys ran Sakura took to the roofs. A week ago Sakura wouldn't be able to do this but that was then and this is now, and now she has learned a great deal of things. The boys were surprised at first but joined her soon after, they made it to Kage tower in record time.

"What the mission old man?" Naruto called as soon as he entered, Sakura knocked him lightly on the head.

"Be more respectful to your elders," she scolded, her calm demeanor not changing but her voice told him of her irritation.

"Sorry Sakura-Chan" he said and she sighed.

"Its not me you should be apologizing to" she muttered but Naruto didn't hear her, he was still trying to get the briefing out of the third Hokage.

"Let him speak Naruto" Iruka chastised from his seat at the long desk. Naruto grumbled but otherwise remained silent. The Hokage laughed hoarsely before speaking.

"You'll be doing a C ranked mission and it will be Intel gathering, and with Sakura's memory that shouldn't be a problem, you'll be going to wave to locate a scroll that may or may not have information on a group of thugs that have been causing trouble on our borders. They have agreed to let us handle it; this single scroll will lead to the downfall of these thugs, when you have the scroll get back as soon as possible. You'll be leaving in one hour, Kakashi can you stay a moment?" the third asked and Kakashi nodded, waiting for the others to get ready he listened as the Hokage spoke.

"Guy, you can come in now," he said and not a second after the green beast made his appearance known. Strutting in and standing next to Kakashi with a safe amount of space between, Kakashi noticed this and expected something he would not be pleased about.

* * *

**good? bad? Review please!**


	3. Found Out But Not Kept Out

**got another one up! it is Friday 8:32 PM in WA time and everyone is either getting late showers or staying up! enjoy the story!**

* * *

"_What?"_ Kakashi all but screamed, how could he have not noticed it? Was it because she was so obliging? Or she was never serious about her ninja career before? He suspected it was a combination of both.  
_'So much for looking beneath the beneath'_ he grumbled in his mind before turning his uncovered eye to Guy.

"And you knew about this? How long?" he interrogated and Guy gave a very Guy-like grin.

"From the start, I even took her as a taijutsu apprentice" he stated proudly but Kakashi just looked more horrified.

"What! She can't handle your kind of training, she can barely handle mine!" Kakashi informed, Guys grin turned grim. Staring at Kakashi with an unfriendly look, he did not like how low she was regarded.

"She seemed very capable to me, are you sure Sakura is just weak? Or that you refuse to let her progress?" he questioned and the room fell into a heavy silence, Kakashi looked baffled.

"What?" he asked incredulously, where was he going with this…

"I've seen her potential and I've seen her utilize it, yet I've seen you, you constantly leave her out of training; telling her to watch and analyze or to practice her chakra, never letting her fight anyone and you wonder why she has such little motivation and her skills were so blunt" he explained and all eyes turned to Kakashi, its true he had let her out but he simply didn't want her to get hurt.

"She reminds me of Rin, I didn't want her hurt," he muttered dejectedly. Guy sighed, everyone who knew Rin could see some of her in Sakura so they understood somewhat, but that was still no reason to hold someone back from their full potential.

"You know the Chunin exams are coming up, what do you think would happen if she ended up fighting on her own when she was as weak as a few weeks ago? You need to let her grow and fly; even if it means she gets a few scares along the way, its better than getting a tombstone right?" he asked and he saw Kakashi cave, his visible eye revealed what his body did not, now he knew he would involve her now. Kakashi changed the subject.

"What have you been teaching her?" he asked and Guy filled him in on what they had done and how she was progressing, Kakashi also told him about her study sessions. Their pride grew when they knew how hard their student was working, Kakashi nodded and 'poofed' away and Guy left as well.

"Hmm" the sound came from the third Hokage, Iruka peered at the village leader.

"Is something wrong Hokage-sama?" he asked and the third gave a small inclination of his head.

"She's been learning at an excelled rate, every time Kakashi visits she's got a whole range of books and scrolls; mainly on chakra and Guy says her taijutsu improves every day at a notable rate, what could fuel her drive to such a degree? And what could she possibly be training for? What _is_ she doing exactly?" he muttered to himself, but everyone heard and everyone was now wondering what the cherry blossom of Konoha could possibly be up to.

"Hey Sakura-Chan! How long do you think this mission will last?" Naruto began the conversation and Sakura smiled at him, he noticed she had been worried about Kakashi staying behind; she was scared that they had found out about her training, but Naruto was trying to get her mind off it.

"I'm guessing a week? Maybe a few days more?" she wondered aloud and Naruto seemed to disagree.

"Nah, probably just a few days! This job will be easy!" he yelled confidently, just then they heard a 'pop!' and with a puff of smoke they saw Kakashi standing there ready to go.

"I see your all ready," he stated looking at everyone, he noticed that everyone was wearing there cloaks for the weather. Smart thinking on their part he supposed, he told them how they would be traveling and with that they set off into the trees.

They only took breaks once every few hours and by the end of the day they were already tired and quiet happy to get some food and rest. Sakura stirred the pot of herbs and rabbit, they had stumbled upon it and decided it would make a good dinner, while Sasuke and Kakashi set up the tents and Naruto gathered some more firewood. She grabbed the plastic bowls as Naruto came back with more firewood.

"Is it dry?" Sakura asked and Naruto nodded proudly. She nodded happily and poured the food into the first bowl, giving it to Naruto she told the others dinner was ready and they almost immediately appeared at her side ready to be fed.  
If there was one thing they did _not_ want to miss out on it was Sakura's cooking, she would always cook on missions because Naruto can't cook for shit and Sasuke blatantly refuses. Kakashi just says he prefers her cooking, which didn't bother her in the slightest.

"Here you go," she said as she passed Sasuke and Kakashi their bowls, she added more firewood before serving herself. They never worried about leftovers because Naruto would eat it all, the other two usually got seconds in but the first bowl would satisfy Sakura.  
They all said thank you before digging in; Naruto and Sasuke were fighting over the last bowl of rabbit stew. Sakura told them whoever got the last bowl would have to do the dishes, this didn't stop them but it got Kakashi and herself out doing the washing.

"So you've been training with Guy and Lee" Kakashi stated when they were far enough; she looked up at him quickly, a startled look on her face he calmed her nerves.

"Don't worry I'm not mad" he said and she nodded, still wary of him. She grabbed her bottle and began walking over to the river, Kakashi following her, and began filling her bottle in silence.

"Did Guy-sensei tell you?" she asked quietly and he sighed.

"No, the Hokage did, but he did admit to it" he informed as she stood, she turned to him to see his almost betrayed expression.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, after a moment she looked down at her feet, she took a deep breath.

"You wouldn't listen" she said and he thought about her words; the more he thought about it the more he understood, its not that he wouldn't listen it would be that he would just disregard the subject.

"I'm sorry, I was focused the boys potential and progress I forgot about your own" he said looking at her with pleading eyes. She smiled gently at him and nodded.

"Well, its kind of hard to ignore them, one is loud while the other is the last of a clan, its Understandable" he smiled at her words, his body posture relaxed greatly and they made their way back to the camp to see Naruto tied up and Sasuke happily eating the last bowl, she sighed and reminded Sasuke that he would have to wash. She also told Naruto that he would dry; she added more wood to the fire before going into her tent and falling asleep.

Sakura woke before dawn, a habit she had acquired over time, and immediately went outside to check the area; when she saw nothing she took a swig of her water bottle.  
She packed her gear and was ready to go, she sat on a sun-warmed rock, the gaps in the trees allowed the sun to pear down.  
She grabbed a scroll and began reading it over, it was about using your senses with nature, and was intrigued; this scroll had not been read since the third Hokage was a boy. It was fascinating and she found herself oblivious to her surroundings as she read on, the scroll was finished in about an hour and she decided to center her chakra.

Sitting cross-legged she closed her eyes, feeling her chakra run through her body she condensed it and then released. She repeated this method for some time but when she took a deep breath she felt restriction.  
Opening her eyes she peered down to see her chakra crystal had formed on her stomach where she was concentrating her chakra. She quickly released it, too quickly; her chakra rushed back into her and caused a small shock wave of wind to move.

After this discovery she used her arm and watched as crystals formed on her skin, she tried picking it off but it just hurt when she pulled, slowly absorbing her chakra again she then focused her chakra where her collar bones met. She was wearing a sleeveless maroon turtleneck sweater-like shirt with her beige green cloak so no one would see it.

"Morning Sakura" she heard Kakashi say, his voice slightly tired. She opened her eyes and smiled at him.

"Morning sensei" she said as she lifted herself off the rock and onto the wet earthy ground. Kakashi went to wake the boys up and Sakura got out some ration bars and water. They ate and packed up before swiftly making their way to wave country, a few days on they took a boat and landed on shore the next day. They got a hotel and rested.

"So what are we going to do?" Naruto asked, Kakashi sighed and sat everyone down; they were going to dress as civilians and gather Intel from gossip. Sakura was dressed in a sliver and pink kimono with a silk peach pink obi, her hair was in a neat bun with two peach pink chopsticks keeping it in place with Sakura petal trinkets hanging of.

"How do I look?" she asked and the boys stared, Naruto was dressed in a dirty brown ripped shirt with some baggy shorts with a grey sash belt and a brown sash to replace his headband. Sasuke was in dark blue traditional clothing, he looked a bit like a noble. Kakashi looked like a samurai; his katana at his side.

"Sakura you'll be with the women at a club for the wives and daughters of noblemen, Sasuke and I will be with the noblemen while Naruto will be with the common folk, understand?" Kakashi asked and everyone nodded. Everyone left to their designated area, when Sakura found the wives clubhouse she entered; the girls immediately flocked around her and invited her in.

"We were told there would be a new girl, you're the one traveling with your fiancé, right?" one of the girls asked and Sakura mutely nodded, overwhelmed. They brought her into a greenhouse garden with at least twelve other females gathered around a large elegant glass table full of different tea's, they all welcomed her.

"Well I'm sure you know about your initiation test" the eldest looking one commented and all the girls went silent, Sakura looked from one face to another till it landed on the eldest wife.

"Initiation test?" Sakura questioned and the eldest smiled.

"I am Yūgana, and this is the test" she gestured to the many pots and cups of tea, realization dawned in Sakura's eyes and she sat down formally on the mat at the table.

"I am to drink tea?" the pinkette questioned and Yūgana nodded before speaking.

"Yes, but you must identify the contents of each drink" she said lightly, Sakura nodded and waited until she was offered; she was a guest after all. When she was given the first cup she thanked the woman and sipped it delicately, not making a sound.

"Mint"

"Jasmine"

"Peach"

"Peppermint"

"Rose"

"Lavender"

She was given her last cup; almost everyone failed this test, apparently. She inhaled the scent but it had none, she took a delicate sip. Sakura paused when she tasted the warm beverage, this couldn't be… could it?

"Could this be… Sake?" she asked and everyone looked at her, then at each other. After a while they all smiled.

"Welcome to the Poison Flower Sakura" Yūgana said proudly as she guided Sakura to a tree, the eldest woman made some hand signs and the tree's trunk opened and they all entered. They walked through darkness for some time before they came to a door, light peering through the frame. One of the younger girls hands moved quickly and the door opened, revealing an underground _city_.

"What-" Sakura was speechless as she stared wide eyed at the world in front of her, the walls were littered with entrances and exits like the one she walked through. There were shops and baths, game stands and casinos, training grounds and weapons shops and everything in between! To the right was rocky cave like ceiling while to the left was a large ice structure keeping the large lake by the village at bay; Sakura could feel the strong seal from where she stood, which was quiet a distance.

"The men don't know it but we've made our own hidden village, there are a few men here but they respect us and _they_ don't think us as heir factories like our husbands and fathers of the noble blood, over many decades we have made many of our own jutsu and learned even more. We are just waiting for the right moment to reveal ourselves," Yūgana explained and Sakura looked questionably as her.

"Why do you trust me so much after one simple tea test?" she asked and Yūgana smiled.

"You were able to taste the Sake, no woman with a high ranking husband would dare drink alcohol in risk of disgracing her family" she explained "So only a girl who has tasted Sake before would be able to recognize it, leaf kunoichi" the older woman added slyly. Sakura looked up at her; a panicked expression in her eyes, Yūgana smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry girl, we knew from the start, we wont harm you. You are a welcomed guest, we know what your village has done for our country and would like to think you as the first step to building an alliance with your Kage" she told the small pinkette, who just stared. After a few seconds she broke into a smile.

"Thank you! I'm sorry for trying to deceive you but it was a mission" she explained and Yūgana nodded.

"Understandable, may I inquire what that mission may be?" she asked and Sakura looked hesitant, could she really trust these people? She didn't know, but this could be the best source of information. She had to take this gamble.

"I need information on a group of thugs causing trouble, we need a scroll they have in their possession, it's imperative that we acquire it," she explained and the girls nodded.

"Suki has been watching a group that guards a scroll, maybe this is the same group, she will inform you all she knows and will collaborate with you and your team" the eldest lady informed and Sakura looked up at her.

"We know of your teammates, don't worry their safe," she said as Suki led Sakura away towards the village.  
A few hours past full of information sharing and planning, her teammates had joined her after the first two hours, and now Suki and herself were sitting in a tree watching the road. Sakura looked back at Suki, she had told her she knew plenty of water jutsu but couldn't help but worry, she had never been in a real fight before; she could tell, her body posture and the look in her eyes told her everything.

"Remember not to hesitate and show no mercy, for you shall receive none," Sakura informed and Suki looked at her, before nodding. They both looked at the road when they heard the sound of footsteps, minutes past before the men came into view, the men were large and scars littered their bodies. These people were fighters and would probably die doing so.

Sakura and Suki waited for their signal from Kakashi, they saw it and went into action.

"Suki-Chan, wait! I cant move that fast!" Sakura called, running after Suki who had jumped to the ground and ran right in front of the group of bandits.

"You better run faster if you want to catch me!" she laughed and Sakura came into view, they were both wearing simple one colored kimono's; Suki a blue and Sakura a green, their bare feet leaving foot prints in the wet soil.

"Gotcha!" Sakura called as she wrapped her arms around Suki's shoulders playfully, they both laughed and looked at the band of men with feign surprise.

"Oh, hello sir's who may you be?" Suki asked playfully and most of them smirked, looking at them up and down with hungry eyes. It took all Sakura had to keep that convincing smile on her face.

"That is none of your concern girl" the leader said, he seemed he wasn't fooled but wasn't aware of the trap either.

"Ok then, what are you carrying?" Sakura asked innocently, pointing to the box being held by a man in the middle of the group.

"I said it's none of your concern!" he hollered and strode up to the two, glaring at them both.

"Move girls" he commanded and the girls looked at each other before smiling cheekily.

"Where are you going?"

"Why don't you like questions?"

"How come your so mad?"

"Don't you like us?" they asked in turns, mocking him. He glared before yelling threateningly at them.

"Move! You insolent brats!" if you looked carefully you could see the steam rising from his head. The girls looked at each other, a moment passed, and they smirked before turning only their eyes at him, bringing an ominous feeling with the thickening mist.

"And what if we don't want to?" they asked in unison and the man broke, raising his hand he moved to strike Sakura but was stopped halfway by her own hand.

"Well that's not very nice," she said in mock hurt before kicking him in the gut, making him fly into his gang.

"And neither was that" Suki laughed before moving her hands in a quick motion and summoned a title wave taking the shape of a dragon, circling around the enemies it stopped any and all from escape. Sakura jumped above and landed gracefully on the other side, she looked up pleasantly from her crouched position. The thirty odd men took fight ready stances.

"May I have that box please?" she asked before she stood strait, the men grinned at her, thinking it would be an easy win, and four lunged for her; she skillfully dodged every single one, having to dodge Lee every day had made her excellent at evasion, and counter attacked each one.  
She kicked the first one in his side causing him to fly into the second man trying to sneak up on her left, she then sidestepped a large brute and pushed the back of his head downwards and he landed face first into the ground with a crack, his nose had broke from her force.  
The last one tried to get behind her but she simply flipped him into the swirling water, after spinning with the water a few times he was finally thrown into the tree's bordering the dirt road.

"Any one else?" she asked cheerfully, when no one moved she disappeared; reappearing behind the box holder she tapped the base of his skull, knocking him out, and lightly took hold of the rectangular box.  
She opened it as the men around her jumped; she inspected the symbol on the wax seal of the scroll and saw no flaw or fault. She nodded to herself before turning to the leader.

"Thank you sir" she said politely before jumping out of the circle and next to a tree, Kakashi reading his dirty novel on the lowest branch. She tossed him the box and he inspected it, nodding he gave it back and Sakura read through it thoroughly; remembering every line, phrase and full stop there was. She even memorized the strange symbol at the end of the script.

She looked up and nodded to Kakashi, who nodded to Sasuke and he set the ring ablaze. Screams were heard and a few got away with only minor burns, Naruto cut them down before they got away.

"Well done everyone, Sakura may I have the scroll?" he asked pleasantly and she did, placing it in his palm. He noted her somewhat disappointed look on her face, but he would talk about it later, if she were willing. He read through it, he nodded and they made their way back to Doukutsugakure, the Village Hidden in the Caves, and reported to the Daikage.  
Rendering the mission complete for them they packed and waited at the main gate; which was just one big iron door leading to an array of tunnels, so they would have to have a guide, and it was Suki who would lead them back to the surface.

The Daikage, Yūgana, arrived with Suki. Smiling kindly she gave Kakashi a scroll and asked him to give this to the leaf villages Hokage, nodding he turned to Suki who happily motioned for the group to follow her. Sakura and Suki walked side by side, talking happily, Sakura would ask questions about the village and how it was built in secret so well while Suki asked about Konoha.

"If someone came here enough wouldn't they remember how to get through the maze?" Sakura asked and Suki laughed, looking at Sakura she spoke.

"That's impossible, the path changes every day!" she said happily and Kakashi beat Sakura to her next question.

"Then how do you get in and out without getting lost?" he asked and Suki looked at him over her shoulder and smirked.

"Classified" she stated before turning back to Sakura, who looked at Kakashi.

"Yūgana-san did say they had also made many of their own jutsu, the maze is probably one of them, right Suki-Chan?" Sakura asked and Suki nodded, they came to a dead end but Suki just made quick hand signs and the boulder quietly sank beneath the earth. The walked out into the misty day, the sun causing the mist to sparkle and it was a beautiful sight.

"Shining mist is not a common occurrence, they say that seeing shinning mist brings good luck" Suki informed before bidding them a good bye, hugging Sakura she left back into the tunnel.

"Let's move" Kakashi said and they set off home bound. When the sun finally began to set they were near the border. They set up camp and Sakura made dinner again; they talked laughed and fought over the last of the meal. They slept, woke, packed and left; eating along the way they crossed the border and made it to the main gate minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon.

* * *

**Like hate? tell me! Also a special thanks to:  
crazycherry459**  
**sakura blossoms**  
**Hannah Bowers **  
**mwa2539**  
**SasuLovesSaku4Ever**  
**And**  
**L.M.D.A.A**  
**For being the first six to review this story!**


	4. A knew kekkei genkai?

**I've got a couple more chapters ready but I don't have much time to actually publish them since my siblings keep calling me away from my laptop and dad hogs the computer, I'll try and publish my ready and waiting chapters. I forgot this for the first few times, I don't own Naruto. Enjoy!**

* * *

"Welcome back, Kakashi, anything exciting happen?" one of the gourds asked, Kakashi responded with a short answer of 'not really, I'll tell you about it later' and they all reported to Kage tower and reported, after everyone went home; except Sakura.  
She went to her home to drop her stuff off and have a quick shower, and made her way to her training field in the fading light. She felt the compressed chakra crystal on her skin; she could feel it buzzing slightly where her collarbones connected, it had only been a few days but she wanted to test it, she released the crystal and it broke off before shattering.  
Her chakra swirled around her form and she felt wave after wave of power flow into her, by the time the chakra calmed her body was layered with a glow of her green chakra, she gazed at her hands before performing a small katon jutsu where she created a small stream of fire from her palm; what she got was a torrent of raging flame.  
She quickly cut off her jutsu and looked at the damage, the area around where the fire struck was burned black and she knew this would raise questions. She looked up at the sky and saw two birds flying freely, she wondered if her knew technique would allow such a thing.

Sakura then spent the next two hours trying to make crystal wings, when she began to fatigue she refocused her chakra into the same spot; it hurt a little but that's to be expected she supposed.  
When she reformed the chakra crystal she felt like she had a thousand needles poking into her skin, she lumbered back to her home before plunging into her bed. Eyes watched her as she did so before disappearing to report to the Hokage.

When morning came she was sore and exhausted, it was well past midday and Kakashi had decided to give them a break, and so here she was soaking in the tub letting the water soak up her sore body and dispelling it into the tub.  
She gave a heavenly sigh as she sunk deeper into the hot water, she sat up after a while and gazed at her crystal; it was a lighter green and was about half the size but other wise still hummed with unused chakra, she finally got out of the tub when the stiffness had mostly disappeared.

She heard a knocking and went to open the door, Lee's eyes were shinning and his smile was almost blinding. He immediately pulled her out the door and into the busy street, when he finally stopped she toppled over at the sudden pause in momentum, she gave him an annoyed stare from her position on the ground. She was wearing her normal attire of a tight turtleneck short-sleeved green shirt with baggy black pants that covered her feet with only her bare toes showing.  
He hadn't exactly given her time to put footwear on, she noticed the other shadows and was able to identify Guy and a Hyuuga and a girl with her brown hair in two tight buns but couldn't see much more of their features.

"Sorry Sakura-Chan!" Lee called out, Sakura just sat and shook her head lightly, and she looked up at Lee and smiled.

"Don't worry about it," she said as she stood up strait, she politely introduced herself and waited for the others to do the same.

"I'm Tenten, weapon mistress of Konoha!" she stated proudly and Sakura nodded, already liking the girl and turned to the Hyuuga.

"Neji" was all he said and she nodded, used to rude or one-word answers she brushed it of and turned to Lee.

"Is there a reason that you dragged me out of my own house and into a training field?" she asked and Guy spoke over Lee.

"Neji said he wanted a real opponent and Lee said the you could beat him any day and I thought 'why not?' and asked Lee to bring you over to test your skills against Neji" he said and Sakura stared at both of them for some time before sighing.

"I cant believe you thought this weakling could beat me" Neji said aloud and everyone saw Sakura stiffen, she turned to him; a heated glare colliding with his frozen gaze, he seemed unfazed by her effort and she huffed before turning back to her second sensei.

"Sure, I would love to beat another arrogant ass into the ground!" she said a little _too_ happily and it made Tenten take a wary step away from Neji. Guy noticed Sakura had no weapons and gave her his pack for the fight and then got Sakura and Neji to face each other before raising his hand and allowing the fight to commence with a loud bellow.

"Fight!"

Sakura moved first, running around Neji, she threw three kunai his way and he dodged expertly but otherwise didn't move.  
_'Cha! We're running circles around that white eyed freak!'_  
Sakura couldn't help but smirk at the humor of her Inner's words, she hadn't stopped running around him, she leaped forward to strike him; focusing her chakra she aimed her punch at his back, he averted her punch and struck her shoulder with a simple touch and she felt her chakra go haywire, she held her uncomfortable shoulder and he smirked.  
Sighing Sakura revealed her shoulder, a layer of chakra crystal falling away in broken pieces, that chakra was corrupt and unsafe to use; if she tried to reabsorb the tainted energy it would most likely do more harm than good.

All eyes widened at the substance as it hit the ground, Sakura took this opportunity to try and hit Neji but he snapped out his surprise; dodging or deflecting every attack he noticed how she seemed to tire, thinking that her shield would be useless now he struck her. That was all he needed to do to guarantee her victory.

It's true she didn't have enough chakra to dispel the corrupted chakra in her body after that but what she _did_ do was infect his body with _her_ corrupted chakra, this was completely experimental and she only had a split second to do so since she needed physical contact for it to work.  
She fell to her knees while he stood strait, she looked up at his arrogant smirking face, Sakura moved to wipe it off but she couldn't move.  
_'I guess it didn't work'_ she thought, it was just an experiment that was thought up in the middle of battle but she did want it to work.

Neji stiffened, then he began to shake, and gasp and fell to the ground. Sakura tried to use her senses to find out what happened, but something very different happened.  
Sakura's view turned turquoise and she saw a black cloud like substance running up Neji's arm and spreading, she could see it was paralyzing him but that was it.

Everything but animals looked made out of crystal, she could see through them and what was inside them, people looked normal besides the turquoise color but other than that she could see there chakra in a sense.  
Tenten's seemed to gleam like a weapon, completely motionless but poised for anything. Lee's seemed like thick layers of leather with a glowing around his legs, perhaps he was hiding something there.  
Guy's was similar to Lee's but much more prominent and no glow around the legs, she wondered what that meant.  
She looked back at Neji, his chakra seemed a little paler than the others but the glow around him was very precise and fluid but had a sense of stiffness, it was like he was being forced to hold back or something was weighing down on him.

The black cloud of what she concluded to be corrupted chakra was fading and Sakura close her eyes, releasing the chakra surrounding her eyes, and when she opened them again the world was back to normal; no see through tree's, no black clouds in peoples body and _no_ chakra characteristics, there was color and there was texture.

Neji was able to move again, albeit with difficulty, and looked at her with a mix of irritation and awe. The others just looked awed and she shifted uncomfortably under their intense gazes, trying to stand up she paused; it seems she hasn't gotten rid of all the corrupted chakra, collecting the chakra she shifted it through into her left palm and crystallized it, the color was black with bits of a dirty green mixed around it. She shifted the chakra flow of the ball and threw it in the air; it exploded and slowly floated to the ground as shimmering dust.

"What was that?" Neji growled, not at all pleased. Sakura looked at him with a curious expression.

"What was what?" she asked and Neji glowered, a dark expression coming over his features.

"What you did to me, how did you paralyze me like that? It was the mist unnatural thing I've ever felt. What. Was. It?" he recited in a low tone and Sakura sighed.

"An experiment" she said, and it was the truth… just not the whole truth.

"_What!_" he yelled. Okay, now Sakura was just getting plain annoyed with this guy.

"As I said, it was an experiment, I figured that when you hit someone's chakra point the chakra surrounding that point corrupts and is useless or harmful to the body, so the body blocks off that area until it can be used again, I thought that if one could dispel the corrupted into another body not only would the invasion of knew chakra mess up the flow it could also give the same effect on the person it had originally come from, such as the paralyses you just experienced" she explained and everyone had a mix of expressions; Lee looked lost while Tenten understood somewhat, Guy and Neji had looks of amazement but one still had a tint of irritation.

"So your saying that you took damage from your body and projected it to another through touch?" Tenten clarified and Sakura nodded.

"That's the gist of it" she shrugged before standing up, she was a little wobbly but otherwise in good shape. She needed rest, she was still recovering from her mission to waves, she said goodbye before going home. The empty house was the same as always, her stomach growled for a decent meal and she happily obliged, she made herself dinner before showering and going to bed.

A few days passed and it was mostly the same; get up, have breakfast, actually _train_ with her team, have lunch, train with Guy and Lee, sometimes Neji and Tenten would join them for sparring and after that she would go to her clearing and practice her knew technique and figure out that thing with the eyes.  
From what she's learned she has, in fact, created a kekkei genkai that coincides with her chakra crystal technique.

At first Sakura was thrilled but she soon found the price for her technique, when she went to bed after a particularly harsh session in her field she had apparently slept for three days, it seems prolonged use equals a comatose-like state until her body recovers.  
Also her eyes would begin to get sore about two hours of constant use, but she could deal with it and prolong it by adding soothing chakra.

She walked home after another three hours of her secret training, she was beginning to wonder if anyone has found out but was keeping a lid on it. In any case if the Hokage wanted to talk to her about it he would summon her, simple as that. She heard a rustle and froze, it was a small one sound, too quiet for anyone to hear and too small for any animal to make.  
Sakura knew she was probably being paranoid but she didn't want everyone to know just yet, she threw a kunai at the bush and a body leaped from said bush and tumbled in front of her.

"Naruto! What are you doing?" she asked and he laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head he looked up at her.

"Hey Sakura, what are you doing out this late?" he diverted but he knew that wouldn't fool her.

"Naruto…" her tone gave off the warning that if he didn't spill now something _else_ was going to spill.

"Hokage wants to see you!" he called out putting his hands in front of him, she gave him a suspicious glare.

"Why didn't you just come out and say that, instead of trying to stalk me?" she questioned and the glint in his eyes told more than it should for a ninja.

"You were spying on me for a reason weren't you?" she accused and he gulped, standing up he sighed.

"Yeah, but the Hokage will tell you when we get there, I guess I failed my mission then" he muttered the last part but she caught it.

"Mission?" he jumped at the question but nodded looking at the road ahead.

"To avoid detection, old man won't be happy" and she giggled slightly, the Kage probably planned all that. She knew that this visit would be either _very_ good or _very_ bad and she felt like running but she continued to walk towards Kage tower, head held high and proud confident strides led her to the entrance where her courage all but left her.  
She was panicking and didn't know if he would let her continue her training but she would continue even if she had train during missions or become a missing-nin it didn't matter, she had a gift and she wasn't about to let some old geezer tell her that it's 'too dangerous for a little girl'. She breathed in and out, her anger was getting the better of her, she had to calm down, these scenario's were just that; scenarios, they had yet to become a reality.

They reached the Hokage's office and Naruto opened the door, walking in they stood side by side, the Kage was sitting there with his fingers laced together in front of him, elbows on the table he watched the two for a while before commenting.

"So Naruto, I take the observation mission was a failure?" he asked in good humor and Naruto sighed.

"She was on her way home by the time I found her and she detected me within the first few minutes of following her" he explained before being ushered to leave. As he walked out the door Sakura watched him, the door echoed in her mind.  
_'Trapped'_ her Inner whispered and Sakura slowly turned back to the Hokage with curious eyes, though he could see the valiantly hidden fear in those depths.

"I hear you've been training"

* * *

**you know the routine: R&R equals chapters! thank you to all my eager readers!**


	5. Meeting Friends After Team Work

**you know the drill, thanks for reading and I, unfortunately, do not own the anime Naruto, trust me if I did Sakura would be a lot stronger. Enjoy!**

* * *

Sakura stared at the Kage for some time, with him staring right back, before she finally answered.

"Hai, Hokage-sama" she said, head slightly ducked as though it would make her invisible, the Anbu were staring at her as well and it felt as though her skin was burning.

"Would you care to demonstrate what you have managed to create? I suspect it has something to do with that crystal near your neck" he said with an interested gleam in his eyes, she sighed before lifting her palm; focusing her chakra the crystal formed, hovering above her palm, and the felt everyone's chakra spike in surprise. They must have never seen anything like it before, the records tells nothing of anything like this so it made sense; the Kage stared for a long while before he spoke.

"How long ago did you discover this?" he asked and Sakura thought back when it first appeared.

"Shortly after the escort mission to waves" she said as the crystal disappeared and her hand fell back to her side, he nodded before standing.

"Sakura Haruno, do you believe this technique can be taught or mimicked?" he asked and Sakura thought about it, maybe one the Uchiha's can copy it but she couldn't be sure.

"I honestly don't know, it could be taught but maybe it can't, an Uchiha might be able to copy it," she said as she shrugged lightly, the Kage nodded before gesturing to one of the Anbu; the masked man stepped forward but Sakura didn't move, an irritated look on her features as she looked at the powerful ninja.

"Well?" the Kage asked curiously, Sakura looked back at The Third.

"I will not show anything to a masked man, I want to know _who_ I am showing my technique to" she said and the Kage gave an understanding look, signaling for the Anbu to remove his mask.

Sakura had to suppress the surprised gasp that threatened to escape her throat, the Sharingan spinning and his face showing no traces of emotion.  
_'I cannot believe we have to show our jutsu to Itachi-bloody-Uchiha'_ her Inner and herself thought at the exact same time, she revealed the crystal technique and he tried to copy it. His chakra glowed in his palm but no crystal was made.

"Your not condensing it enough_"_ she said offhandedly, the only reason she was helping was because she actually wanted to see if it could be done, he gave a cold stare but she didn't flinch. He tried again and again but nothing changed, he simply couldn't do it, eventually he sighed and gave up.

"It cannot be copied Hokage-sama" he said before putting on his mask and returning to his place by the wall, Sakura looked back to the Kage his eyes were closed in thought. When he opened them she felt a mix of emotions; excitement, fear, adrenalin and nervousness were swirling in her gut. He smiled at her, before sitting down again.

"Sakura Haruno, after the Chunin exams you will face an Uchiha and a Hyuuga to test your skills and see if you are worthy to be the beginning of the Haruno ninja clan" he announced and Sakura froze, her eyes wide and her mouth agape, she quickly closed her mouth and spoke without really thinking.

"But I've already fought a Hyuuga" she said before covering her mouth.  
_'Oops'_ she thought and she heard her Inner going on a rant about her being a blabbermouth.

"You have? Who?" he inquired and Sakura gulped silently.

"Hyuuga Neji, we've sparred many times and I have beaten him about as much as he has beaten me" she said, he was a good sparing partner and was also really good for testing knew moves on. Everyone was staring at her again; he was a prodigy of the proud clan.

"Well, we will have to ask Neji if that is true" he muttered to himself and she briefly wondered if the brown haired boy would tell the truth, he probably would due to being honor-bound.

"But I have a question, how can my family become a ninja clan? I'm an only child," she said and the Kage looked at her and then gazed out the window and into the starry sky.

"Do you have any cousins or relatives?" he asked and Sakura paused, her surprised face grew into a bright smile.

"I do! There all in different countries but I'm sure I can get them to at least visit!" she exclaimed before calming down, the Kage chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Very well, but first you will face an Uchiha after the exams. Come see me to help organize the 'family reunion' will you?" he asked and Sakura nodded happily, he dismissed her.

"Hokage-sama, who will you put her against?" Itachi asked and the Kage looked at him then gazed at the stars.

"You"

Sakura trudged home, tired but excited; she entered her home and had a relaxing bath before she changed into a long sleeved blue-striped pajama button shirt with matching long pajama pants, they were slightly over-sized so she looked small and cute. She went under the warm covers and quickly fell into a peaceful slumber.

Morning came and Sakura went into her usual pattern: make breakfast, pack lunch and out the door before dawn. She went to her clearing and practiced her new eyes.

Kurisutarubyū, that's what she will call it. Unlike the Hyuuga's she doesn't need to say it and unlike the Uchiha's she doesn't need chakra to use it, the name may be a bit long but she liked it. About an hour passed and she realized it was almost time to meet up, heading to the bridged she waited for the others by playing with her eyes; apparently water was still water, it was a different color but it still flowed and it was a beautiful sight, it was like a river of light flowing and changing with different shades and brightness of light. She watched it for a good twenty minutes before she sensed Sasuke coming near.

"Hey" was all he said as he walked onto the bridge and leaned against the railing, she had deactivated her Kurisutarubyū and nodded to her teammate.

"Morning Sasuke" she said before turning to gaze back at the water, she watched as the fish played with each other. They stayed like that until the number one knuckle headed ninja made his loud appearance, the duo on the bridge looked his way and Sakura was about to greet him but the darker of the two beat her to the punch.

"Your late dobe" he stated and Naruto's happy demeanor quickly flashed into one of irritation. Before he could retort Sakura played peacekeeper once again.

"If anyone gets here before Kakashi I think they would be on time regardless of original meeting time, right Naruto?" she asked and he paused, thought and nodded happily, she turned to see Sasuke sedated and relaxing. After about ten minutes of talking Naruto and Sasuke got into another fight and Sakura had to reel them in, every ten minutes was a repeat and each time she got more violent.  
They were completely quiet by the sixth go and waited patiently, they had enough of Sakura's reprimands and they would not lie that they were scared of an angry Sakura.

"Sorry I'm late but-"

"Cut the crap sensei, we all know it's just another excuse," Sakura said before Naruto could call out and cause the two males to start bickering again.

"So what are we doing today?" Naruto asked eagerly and Kakashi pulled out sheets of paper, handing a stack to each of them he explained.

"We'll be doing cooperation training and that will be it" he said as they all read the paper that was handed to them.  
_Chunin exams_  
Sakura paused for a moment before looking at her sensei, he smiled at her and she smiled back. Naruto on the other hand wasn't so excited, or knowledgeable for that matter.

"What are the Chunin exams?" he asked and everyone looked him, Sakura sighed and answered.

"They are a series of tests genin go through to prove they are worthy of the rank of Chunin, people often repeat multiple times or even die during some of these tests" she explained as clearly as she could and after a moment a look of understanding came over the blondes face and he gave a thousand watt smile.

"Oh yeah! I'm going to fly through these tests!" he yelled and Sakura envied his confidence but stayed optimistic, if she couldn't win then she will at least survive for the next time.

"Dobe" Sasuke muttered but made it loud enough for everyone to hear, Naruto paused before getting into another heated argument with the mini-Uchiha-prodigy, Sakura gave a deadpanned look while Kakashi chuckled.

"I am so gonna die" she said to herself and her sensei gave a humorous response.

"At least you can watch them suffer as a ghost" he said and Sakura shot him a mock glare but she couldn't hide the amused glint in her eyes, their eyes turned back to the bickering pair and Sakura decided enough was enough.

"What are you two? an old married couple? We're supposed to be training for the exams and your both acting like five year-olds" she scolded, hands on her hips and an unimpressed expression on her fine features, they stopped their fighting and stood strait with their heads down.  
_'With that kind of attitude she'll attract a lot of boys, though they'll have to be ninja to stand a chance'_ he thought fondly and couldn't help but feel a little unhappy with the thought, he did see Sakura in a daughter-like light and he supposed he was just being protective.  
He chuckled, he was letting her enter the Chunin exams but he was not willing to hand over his Sakura to some guy who thinks they're good enough, he knew that Sakura becoming a ninja had put her and her parents on shaky terms and he knew that they left to visit families or go on business trips often leaving her alone, and in the midst of it all the two had formed a stronger father and daughter relationship than her actual blood-related family.

He saw her straiten the boy out before calling them out; they were doing the same old bell test they did the first time, two bells three teammates and one goal.  
Kakashi waited, reading his favorite novel while they hid, he waited a good ten minutes but nothing happened.  
He looked around before deciding to look about in the forest, once he was in the tree line fire swarmed around him. He jumped up and out of the range of the fire but in mid air was attacked by one of Sakura's kicks, flipping around the well aimed kick he landed on a branch watching the two and waiting for the third but Sakura's and Sasuke's attacks just kept coming, she would use some basic elemental jutsu's and mainly taijutsu while Sasuke would use a combination of high ranking taijutsu and katon jutsu.  
He put his book away as the two kept attacking, he added his own attacks and they dodged, he felt someone behind him; turning around he saw about one hundred Narutos' coming for him. He actually panicked as they descended upon him.

"Gotcha!" all the Naruto's yelled and they soon covered the Jounin in a giant group tackle, the duo watched on. Surprisingly they weren't tired and hadn't broken a sweat, which was good for them, as the Naruto clones moved to reveal a captured Kakashi they instead revealed a captured _Naruto_.

"Hey, it's me you guys!" they let him go and started arguing, before he could into another fight with himself Sakura called out.

"Naruto! Release the jutsu!" she yelled and her did just that, but there was still one clone standing. They looked back from one to the other, Sasuke and Sakura wondered which was which.

Sakura told Sasuke to use his Sharingan and he did, not a moment afterwards he attacked the Naruto on the right, following his example she went after him. That Naruto jumped away in a style that was _not_ Naruto, he landed on a branch before poofing back into his original form.

"Not bad" he said as looked appraisingly at all of them, his eyes widened as his students poofed into nothing, he felt three chakra's heading his way, he saw two of his apprentices above him and one heading strait for him via branches. The two above, Sakura and Naruto, got to him first; kunai drawn they went for him, he dodged and moved back. The third went for the bells, Kakashi managed to stop him and jumped back, and he landed on a branch away from his three students, looking at all three of them.  
They three genin stood on the branch in front of him, they stared at him before looking at each other and smiled after a moment before jumping away. Kakashi stared after them with one thing running through his mind.

_'What?'_

"Sakura can you please pass the sushi?" Naruto asked and Sakura obliged, passing some of the sushi she grabbed a piece of crab and dug in. Kakashi appeared in front of them shortly after, he didn't look too happy.

"What are you doing? You haven't got the bells yet," he said in a gruff voice. The three spared him a glance before going back to eating their lunch, Sakura's included. He was about to reprimand them when Sasuke finally spoke.

"Haven't you noticed?" he asked and Kakashi paused, what?  
Sasuke and Naruto held up the bells for a moment before placing them back on the soft ground, Kakashi looked at his waist to find the bells gone. Naruto laughed at Kakashi's face.

"Come on sensei! Ever heard of genjustu?" he called before digging in again, Kakashi sighed when his own stomach grumbled. He eyed the food and Naruto was going to protest but Sakura silenced him by offering him a pair of chopsticks, the world around him turned to bubbles and shinning stars as he took them and sat down. They all ate and talked and laughed, Sakura smiled gently at the scene, this was her family. Kakashi was the father while Naruto and Sasuke were her brothers; she hoped this memory would last so she could remember it during the exams.

They were all walking home; Kakashi had already parted ways with them, and walked down a street. Sasuke said his goodbye and went down a different street, that's when one of Naruto's younger friends ran into them.

"Hey boss! You promised to play ninja with us!" he called out pointing at him, Naruto looked a little annoyed but Sakura found it kinda cute.  
_'Come on, a ninja playing ninja? How lame!'_ her Inner yelled.  
_'But it's nice that he hangs out with kids, don't you think?'_ she retorted and her Inner remained silent, she watched Naruto try and deny the young ones hanging off his legs and pulling his arm.

"Hey, Naruto needs his rest, Kakashi gave us hell at training so he wouldn't be very good right now. Ask him tomorrow morning ok?" she offered and everyone looked at her, after some decent thought the kids detached from Naruto and agreed.

"Can you play ninja with us then?" they turned to her and Sakura paused, she had never played ninja before seeing as she was either to shy or was studying. She looked at feet, shifting a little.

"I've never played before" she mumbled audibly, the kids paused before smiling.

"Then we'll teach you!" Konohamaru said happily, Sakura smiled and Naruto looked back and forth.

"I guess I could play with you…" he said, Konohamaru beamed at him.

"Really? All right! Sakura, Naruto you two can be it, you chase us and we run! Lets go!" he yelled and the kids shot off, the two teammates just stared at where they were.

"Hey get back here!" Naruto yelled chasing after them, Sakura laughed before following Naruto. They all ran for a while until the scarfed boy ran into someone, they both grunted and while Konohamaru fell the ground the older stranger just staggered slightly.

"Watch where your going brat," the stranger growled; he was wearing dark clothes that covered his body, a hood with what looked like cat ears and something large wrapped in bandages on his back, he also had a Suna Haiti-ate.

"Why don't _you_ watch where _your_ going you big jerk!" the smaller boy yelled, before he could stand up the larger Suna nin picked him up by his scarf.

"Looks like someone needs to teach you some respect _brat_" he said none too gently, the girl behind stepped forward; she had her blonde hair in four spiked ponytails and had what looked like a giant fan on her back.

"Kankuro, leave the kid alone, he'll be here soon" she said, her partner spared her a glance.

"Come on Temari, we still have a while before he gets here," he said before turning back to the struggling kid. Sakura stepped forward, she didn't want a brawl to start so she would try and talk their way out of it.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault," she said but Kankuro just ignored her, she twitched slightly but remained calm, letting her temper loose would only worsen the situation.

"Let him go you bully!" Naruto yelled. _Damn,_ she forgot Naruto's temper was worse than hers in these situations, where she could be calm he was a volcano. She shot him a glare but it gave no effect since he was not facing her.

"Oh, your responsible for the brat?" the larger nin asked, Naruto was about to retort when Sakura stood in front of him.

"We're sorry, please let our friend go, we don't want any unnecessary violence," she said and Naruto opened his mouth to protest but Sakura's glare made him silent, she didn't want to use her Kurisutarubyū. The other one however was not so compliant.

"How pathetic, trying to get out of a fight, I feel sorry for your teammates with being stuck with someone as weak as you" he gloated and Sakura froze. _Weak_, that was _not_ a word you want to associate her with; Sakura's eyes had a dangerous look but Kankuro was ignorant of the danger he just put himself in, Temari on the other hand saw the pinkette's eyes.

"Kankuro-" she started but he cut her off.

"Enough! I'm gonna teach this brat a lesson" he said as he raised a clenched hand, ready to strike, Sakura was about to move when a rock hit Kankuro on the hand that was holding Konohamaru. The let go in pain and Konohamaru dropped onto the ground, he got up and scurried behind Sakura; the other two kids were behind her as well.  
Everyone looked towards where the projectile had come from; Sasuke was sitting in a tree holding another rock.

"What's a loser like you doing in our village?" he questioned as he crushed the rock in his hand, her Inner scoffed calling him a 'show off' but Sakura just ignored the voice and focused on the situation at hand. The hooded ninja did not look happy, growling about stupid show offs, he would probably get along with Inner.

"I'll show you!" he said as he brought his mummified object to his side, it made a loud thud when it hit the ground, and he smirked confidently at the young Uchiha. Sasuke gave off a similar expression but everyone froze when they heard a cold voice pierce the air.

"Stop Kankuro" a male voice commanded. There, upside down on the opposite branch was a boy with red hair and cold teal eyes, he was glaring at Kankuro; the red headed boy had a large gourd on his back that was held in place by a white sash.

"Uh, G-Gaara, I-I, t-they-" he stuttered but the younger looking boy cut him off.

"Shut up, you're a disgrace to the Sand village," he said before sand swirled around him and he appeared in front of the two Suna nin.

"I know we got here early" he looked behind towards where Naruto, Sakura and the kids were before looking back his supposed partners "But try not to cause trouble" he finished before he began walking away.

"Wait! You're here for the Chunin exams aren't you" Sakura called, all three stopped and turned around to face the kunoichi, Gaara nodded and Sasuke jumped down.

"Hey, who are you?" he asked, pointing to Gaara, the red head turned his cold stare to the Uchiha.

"I also want to know who you are, my name is Subaku No Gaara" he said and waited for the dark haired boy to respond, Sasuke nodded.

"Uchiha Sasuke" he stated and Gaara nodded, his gaze turned to Sakura before he eyed the children. Sakura stepped in front of them and she gave a hard look at the red head, his eyes turned to her ones more, his eyes asked for her name.

"Haruno Sakura" she stated and he nodded before moving to walk away, Naruto was about to speak but she clasped her hand over his mouth and shook her head. She released him and he stayed quiet until the team was gone, she noticed the kids were shaken up, and she sighed and turned around to face the kids, kneeling to their height she smiled at them.

"How about we all go get some ramen, Naruto's treat?" she asked and they all nodded happily.

"Hey! How come I gotta pay?" Naruto whined and Sakura glared at him, her tone was flat and down right scary to him.

"You didn't help the situation before, you only made it worse, ergo your paying for it; literally" she said as she held Konohamaru's teammates hands while the scarfed boy dragged Naruto, Sakura turned and asked her raven haired teammate if he would like to join. He nodded and they made their way to Ichiraku's to forget their unexpected encounter with an unlikely future ally.

* * *

**You know the drill, again, good? bad? R&R please! hope you liked it.**


	6. The Gathering

**Whaaaaaaaah! I am so sorry! I didn't mean for it to take so long, I had writers block! I'm so sorry... please don't hate me...**

* * *

"Thanks again Naruto, you too Sakura!" the three yelled before running down the street towards their homes, the two addressed waved back; one happily and the other begrudgingly, the third member of their party had their hands in there pockets and waited for his friends. Yes, you read that right; the almighty Sasuke Uchiha considered the dobe and the cherry blossom his friends.

"I better get home, see you boys tomorrow for some light training?" she asked and they both nodded. She made her way home, she noticed a presence following her and resisted the erg to run or turn around.

The presence stayed until she reached home and undid the seal on her door; she felt a slight breeze behind her from sudden movement, she turned around to see Gaara's form standing very close to her own, his cold eyes stared down at her but she was used to cold gazes by now so she felt unaffected.

"Is there something you want?" she asked politely and she saw surprise flicker in his ice-colored orbs but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, he reached out and held a strand of her hair between his fingers, he played with it slightly as he looked at it with, what she could best guess, fascination.

"Why is your hair this color?" he said, Sakura held back a groan of annoyance, why does everyone have to question her hair color? She allowed herself to sigh.

"Medically you would call it a genetic deformity or oddity, my dad has white hair while my mum has red; I guess their genes mixed the wrong way and gave me pink hair" she said allowing him to continue his play of curiosity, he looked from her hair to her eyes and she saw something she could not identify.

"You don't fear me," he stated, his statement confused Sakura.

"Of course, you have done nothing to cause me to be afraid" she said and he nodded slowly, taking in her words, before finally releasing her hair. He was about to walk away when he gripped his head in pain, falling to his knees he began to shake.

"Gaara-san! What's wrong?" she said frantically, she was at his side in a heartbeat. She held his shoulders gently and tried to comfort him as he suffered for unknown causes, he started clawing at his scalp; drawing blood, she grabbed one of his hands and held it tightly.

"Don't do that!" she said with a slightly raised tone, as though it would be the only way for him to hear her. He opened one eye to a slit and looked at her panting.  
Another shot of pain struck him and he yelled in pain, not loudly but it was audible, he suddenly dove for her and wrapped his arms around her mid-section, holding her tightly to the point of pain as he shook.  
She wrapped one arm around his shoulders and the other ran through his hair in a soothing motion, he buried his head in her shoulder as though to escape the pain.

He suddenly stopped after a while, his hold slacked and fell to her sides; silence consumed them both, the longer he remained silent the more a malevolent chakra cloaked his body, she finally found her voice and she delicately questioned the boy.

"Gaara-san? Are you okay?" she whispered, he shifted slightly before holding her mid-section again.

"Sorry, Gaaras' not available at the moment" she heard the boy say, but his voice was drastically different from the voice she knew Gaara possessed. The chakra that flowed around his body was not Gaara's; it held a demonic feel that she knew all too well.

"You're a tailed demon aren't you?" she stated more than asked; he chuckled as he lifted his head from her shoulder. She suppressed a gasp as she looked into his golden eyes, what was supposed to be the white of his eyes were in fact black and his pupil was in the shape of a diamond.

"Bingo, the name's Shukaku" he said and grinned in way that gave Sakura the impression of a mad man. He moved them both so she was sitting on his lap, arms still trapping her.

"I've only seen your colored hair once, you must a Haruno, they we're quiet nice to me long ago" he said off-handedly and Sakura turned her head to look at the demon.

"You know my family?" she asked and he nodded, leaning his back against her door.

"Before I was trapped in that accursed kettle I had met your family, I was quiet young at the time and had been injured in a fight, I had to downsize into human form and your family took me in, saving my life. They lived in a small remote village comprised mostly of Haruno's; they immediately knew who I was but treated me very well, some even playfully teased me" He chuckled lightly but it faded as memories of the past continued to flow.  
"But someone who was married into your clan went and told the Kazekage. I was going to stay but the village was destroyed and I was stuck in that blasted kettle, from then on I swore that I would only live to kill. I would live to kill everyone except those of Haruno blood; I would protect them seeing as I have a debt to pay" he finished, Sakura had stayed quiet through the whole story and was quiet amazed.

"So my family saved your life centuries ago and now that you've found me, a descendant, your going to repay what you believe to be a debt" she clarified and he nodded, Sakura laughed which caused Shukaku to frown.

"What's so funny?" he growled and Sakura calmed her laughter.

"I don't think my family ever expected repayment," she said and he looked confused, so she explained.

"My family helped you out of the kindness of their hearts, they didn't care that you're a demon and, if I carry the same nature as they did, putting you in their debt was the last thing on their minds. They just wanted to help, nothing more," she said and Shukaku stared at her, and stared, and stared, and _stared._ Sakura was about to question him on it but a bellowing laughter filled the air, stopping her question, and Sakura was glade this was a remote part of town.

"I know your ancestors intentions were not tainted, I just want to keep people like you and your family alive. You are a light that demons like me cherish; Sakura I am blessing you with my protection, don't try to get out of it because it wont work, when a tailed demon makes up their mind it ain't gonna change so get used to it" he said with a grin that made her smile back.

"Fine, you win, but don't try and make Gaara follow me everywhere, my teammates will just end up fighting you" she giggled slightly and moved to stand up but Shukaku held her there.

"Um… can you let go?" she asked and he smirked, his tightened grip told her the answer, she sighed and begun to squirm as the realization of her position became evident. He chuckled behind her ear causing her to blush and flinch away.

"Shy little one, aren't you?" he joked and Sakura pouted, crossing her arms she looked away. She wanted to go to bed but the bloody tanuki wasn't letting her.

"I want to go to sleep," she stated and she felt his laughter through her back. He stood up taking her with him, she gasped in surprise and he chuckled again, keeping her lifted off the ground his sand opened the door and he walked in. Sakura sighed and directed him to her room; he strolled in and inspected her room before sighing and shaking his head.

"What? What's wrong with it?" she asked, a little irritated, and he looked at her before placing on her bed.

"This place is too small, the Haruno clan used to have large homes, this place is tiny compared to your ancestors houses" he commented and Sakura sighed, mostly in relief, before smiling at him.

"You know what they say, less is more," she said before taking off her small jacket and putting on her button pajama shirt, she then slid her PJ pants over her second skin like shorts and took of her belt that held her Haiti-ate.

"Aren't you going to change or shower?" he asked as Sakura stretched.

"I'll have one in the morning," she muttered as she lay down, putting the covers over herself she closed her eyes and surprisingly fell asleep quiet easily.

He knew when she fell asleep, he gazed up at the moon; it wasn't a full moon but it still illuminated the room, when he was with the Haruno clan he didn't feel blood lust. Don't get him wrong he loved to kill, but with a Haruno around he didn't feel the nagging need and it was refreshing as it allowed him to relax.

He looked back towards the Haruno descendant, she was a true Haruno, and her hair meant that she would've been held in high standing back when her clan flourished.  
He felt the call of his fellow demons; he closed his eyes and allowed his host to regain control but told him to keep watch over her.

When he opened his eyes he was with his brethren and they all looked at him oddly. He switched his gaze to each and everyone one of them before he finally cracked.

"What?" he yelled and Son Gokū laughed, and Kokuō stepped forward. "You don't have that blood mad look in your eyes" she stated and Shukaku looked little surprised before nodding. "That's because I've met a Haruno" he said and everyone stayed quiet, they knew of his history with the Haruno clan and what he had told them of their soothing abilities. "I thought the Kazekage had the Haruno clan exterminated" Isobu put in and everyone nodded, most of the clan that was the Haruno's were hunted down after the capture of Shukaku and they had all wanted to meet the kind people. "Your talking about Haruno Sakura no doubt?" Kurama said with a wry grin, Shukaku glared at him.

"She's a member of your host's team. Why didn't you say there was a surviving Haruno?" he interrogated and everyone looked back and forth between the raccoon-dog and the fox.

"No one brought it up, and besides I wanted to find out if a Haruno really does have the demon soothing qualities they apparently possess. Evidently they do, I quiet enjoy her company and I find it entertaining when she punishes her teammates" he chuckled as he remembered how the pinkette lectured the Uchiha and his host on fighting each other.

"That does give you any right to withhold any information pertaining to the Haruno clan, we agreed that if one of us found someone of Haruno blood we would tell each other" the tanuki argued and everyone agreed, Kurama sighed before he twitched. It wasn't just a twitch it was _the_ twitch, it was a universal rule that there human host was either in need of them or their seal simply commanded their consciousness to return.

"Well then, I'll be off, until our next reunion" he said before he turned around and walked away, his nine tails swishing languidly behind him as he faded into the mist that was their realm, some of the others grumbled about their fox brother but otherwise remained silent.

"Gaara's calling me back as well" Shukaku said and he turned around, Son Gokū remarked then.

"So you just obey your vessel now?" he mocked and Shukaku sent a glare his way.

"Sakura is with him, of course I'll go, you idiot" the sand demon retorted before making his way back to his host.

'**Any change?'** he asked when he was once more locked away in his vessels body and mind.  
_'No'_ Gaara growled in his mind, he really didn't see the point in watching over this weakling. He felt a strong pain enter his skull as Shukaku tormented him.  
**'Do not say that about a Haruno, do you understand?'** his demon warned and the pain subsided, he gave a sigh of relief as the pressure faded.  
He continued to watch the female who his demon held such a high regard for, and for Shukaku to hold _anyone_ in _any_ regard is seldom enough. He would admit that she wasn't ugly, very pretty in fact; in her own nature she was rare, her hair was a one thing but also how she didn't fear him, maybe she wouldn't be such a nuisance or weakness, she was keeping Shukaku from ranting about blood lust and wasn't plaguing his mind with pain or noise every second, he was enjoying the silence.

Dawn came and he was still there, she was about to greet Shukaku a good morning but saw that Gaara was back in control, she still gave him a pleasant 'good morning' before grabbing the needed garments and heading to the bathroom. She enjoyed the shower as the memory of last night came into being, she wondered if Gaara knew of Shukaku's and hers… _partnership_, as best as she could put it. Pushing the thought to the side she changed into her usual garments kunai pouch and bag attached to her thigh and belt along with her forehead protector.  
She looked in the mirror; her crystal was showing, Sakura sighed, she was going to have to tell them sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner.

"You hungry?" she asked as she came out of the door, hair dried and brushed. He looked at her before nodding, she smiled and gestured her to follow him down stairs. She made breakfast for the two of them and offered his plate; once they had finished she began washing the dishes, when she was done she told him she had some training to do with her teammates and with that was out the door.

She discovered that if you sent chakra to your feet and tweaked it just right you could skate across the ground as though you were on ice, she maneuvered around the civilians who paid her no heed; already used to the girl and her speedy travel.

She arrived shortly before Sasuke and after a few minutes Naruto was there as well, they got right into training, recapping on what they know and making coordinated attacks and when they took breaks, strategies for all sorts of situations. Sakura had paused a few times, thinking about whether or not to tell them, but she finally got the nerve to tell them.  
They were both surprised and a little hurt that she didn't trust them but they soon forgot it, they continued making plans and making code words and names and practiced their new attacks and defenses.  
Guys' team came around by chance so when team seven asked for them to help with practice they all agreed.  
By the end of the session everyone was exhausted, covered in bruises and scratches. Even Guy, who had randomly joined in and made it a free for all, was covered in minor injuries.

"So much for a light training session" Sakura laughed in between pants, everyone except for Sasuke and Neji laughed; they just smiled. She stood up a little bit wobbly but otherwise fit to walk, she bid them a 'good bye' and began her journey home.  
About half way there she tripped, feeling the panicked sensation of falling she shut her eyes and jerked her hands forward to cushion her landing.  
She never hit the ground; she slowly opened her eyes to see black, her eyebrows furrowed at the obstruction of her view. She shifted her head backwards to see a white sash, which gave her a very short list of candidates to whom her 'rescuer' could be.

"You should be more careful" she heard the boy say. Gaara, of course, he's the one with a protective demon and an apparent fascination with her hair color.

"I'm just tired" she sighed, she stood, and as though on cue she yawned. Stretching her arms above her head she sighed as she felt her shoulder crack, relieving the pressure that had built up. She was suddenly off solid earth and into a solid chest; it took her a few seconds to realize she was being carried bridal style back to her abode.

"Uh, Gaara? I'm tired, not crippled. I can walk" she said but he just ignored her, she felt a familiar twinge in her heart; that same painful twinge of being to weak to even be noticed unless its to be rescued or aided. She glared and began to struggle with knew strength she didn't realize she still had.

"I am _not_ dead weight for you to just carry around! I _can_ walk on _my own_ and I _can _take care of_ myself!_" she almost yelled and he finally put her down, she stood strait and begun to walk home at a brisk pace, not sparing him a glance.

* * *

**Me: Sakura, please say it for me.**  
**Sakura: Sure! Outcast001 does _not_ own Naruto... _dammit_**  
**Me: I know, BTW This is a non-massacre fic, so Itachi has not killed any family members... I think**

**Good? bad? Tell me so I can make it better!  
**


	7. The First Test

**Writers block is the one thing all readers and writers fear, I had it for a while but I've broken the chains and I'm free! I don't own Naruto and this is a NON-MASSACRE ITACHI HAS NOT KILLED THE WHOLE CLAN!**

**enjoy!  
**

* * *

What had he done wrong? She was barely able to walk yet when he carried her she began to struggle and he had to put her down, she was suddenly able to walk on her own as though nothing was wrong, but what irritated him was the she didn't even spare him a glance.  
He continued to walk behind her as she made her way home but he kept his distance, she didn't seem to be in a good mood, but was in ear shot in case she should need anything.  
Perhaps it was his demon that caused his need to attend to the girl or that is was simple curiosity and a wanting to figure this girl out, either way he continued to try and piece together her meanings behind her responses; instead of giving him answers it gave him a headache. When they reached her home she didn't bother in trying to keep him out, he would probably just break in. Sakura went strait to the kitchen and began working on making herself dinner. Finally he spoke.

"What did I do wrong?" he asked and Sakura paused in chopping the vegetables, she looked at him for a moment.

"What?" she tilted her head, confused.

"When I tried to carry you back you resisted, what did I do wrong?" he clarified, she looked at him for a long while before she exhaled loudly.

"You didn't do anything wrong, it's just… I felt like I was that weak little girl again" she said and began chopping once more, when she glanced up at him his eyes told her he did not understand.

"I was very weak not to long ago, about a month and a half ago I would barely have _any_ skills, I thought I was a great ninja but every time my team was in danger I would just freeze, I would be saved and rescued and eventually I discovered just how much dead weight I was… I-I'm _never_ going to be like that again, so when you carried me I felt like I was just being dead weight again… sorry" her voice turned into a mumble as she stirred the vegetables in the noodle mix, her back to him. If she didn't have her back to him she would've seen how his shoulders relaxed.

When morning came she wasn't feeling the wave of anxiety she expected to feel, she did feel nervous but not enough for her to fidget or anything. She showered quickly and put on her usual shorts, double sports bras and jacket with her Haiti-ate belt and kunai pouches.  
She looked in the mirror and finally noticed two things.  
1: her hair was longer; waist length now, not that it really mattered.  
2: her chakra crystal was a very dark green, almost black and it was very large, about four centimeters wide. She was almost scared what would happen if she broke it. (Break/broke means when she unleashes the chakra in the crystal)

"Hey Sakura-Chan! Come on were heading to the examination room!" she heard her blonde friend yell, she walked to her balcony and looked down at them. Naruto was waving like an idiot while Sasuke just nodded when she appeared, she sealed her house shut and jumped down to join her teammates, they then began walking towards their future.

"Let us in!" someone yelled, a large group around a door. Sakura paused to see just how many people were trying to get in, she paused for a moment, how many flights did they go up? She looked to Sasuke and he nodded, confirming what she suspected.

"We're not letting any weak ninja in, so you might as well go home" one of the kids guarding the door yelled, there were two and it seemed they weren't letting anyone pass. Sakura was about to tell the boys to just move on and not cause trouble but Sasuke just _had_ to be a show off.

"Hey, release the genjustu, this isn't the third floor," he said coolly and Sakura had to stop herself from face palming.  
_'Sometimes I wonder if its really Naruto who's the idiot on our team'_ Sakura thought as she stepped to her teammates side, Naruto joining them on Sakura's left.

"Oh~ you ruined our fun!" one whined and Sakura took notice of both of their appearances, they looked familiar… she had seen them before but where?  
They were Jounin! They were just pretending, was it for fun or was it a job? Either way it wasn't her concern, Sakura began walking towards the next set of stairs.

"Sakura…?" Naruto watched her move; she turned to her teammates before nodding to them.

"We don't have much time, if were going to get to the examinations we need to move," she said before continuing her journey towards the staircase. The others quickly caught up and the team made there way up the stairs. They reached the doors that led to the waiting room; they stopped when they saw a cloud of smoke accompanied by a 'pop' sound, Kakashi smiled at them and they smiled back… well Sasuke smirked but we'll pretend he's smiling.

"I'm glad all of you showed up, otherwise you wouldn't of been aloud in" he said bluntly, looking at Sakura, she was about to growl at him about how she was strong enough but then remembered he didn't know about the Kurisutarubyū, she kept her mouth shut and nodded.

"So if one of us didn't show then the others wouldn't be able to take the exams," she said and Naruto gasped in surprise but smiled his idiot smile soon afterwards.

"But we're all here, so lets go!" he said and Kakashi nodded, stepping to the side he allowed them through; he noticed the crystal on her skin and will have to ask her about it later, they entered and Sakura couldn't help but feel a little frightened by the amount of ninja there. There were so many and all from different villages too, she heard running and turned around to see Ino running towards them.

"Hey Sasuke-kun! I've missed you!" she squealed, she had long platinum hair done up in a high ponytail with one long fringe of hair covering her right sky blue eye. She looked smugly at Sakura, the female of team seven waved at Ino but otherwise did respond. This threw Ino through a loop.

"Hey forehead, are you not feeling well?" she asked detaching from the Uchiha and walking over to the pinkette, Sakura looked at Ino and smiled.

"Yeah, I've just gotten over Sasuke" she said and Ino smiled triumphantly, standing tall like she won a million yen bet.

"So you've given up! Ha I win!" the _other_ loud blonde exclaimed and Sakura sighed, she should have seen this coming.

"Yes, I gave up Ino, but not because of the reasons you think, I left love in the backseat so I can become stronger" she stated and Ino paused, she looked at Sakura slyly.

"You? Strong? Like that could ever happen" she laughed and Sakura twitched _ever_ so slightly.

"I'm stronger than you Ino-pig!" she retorted and Ino glared, Sakura glared right back… and then started giggling, Ino looked baffled.

"Sorry, it's just it reminds me of the old days, when we used to verbally kill each other" she snickered and Ino smiled before going into her own fit of giggles.

"Yeah, and how we would always race to the academy and say that we beat each other when we got there at the _exact_ same time" they both laughed a little as two other boys came around.

"You girls are so loud, it's troublesome," the lazy genius said, Ino scowled at the dark haired boy. His hair was in a spiked ponytail and made it look like a pineapple, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Hey Shikamaru" Sakura waved at him and he nodded.

"Hey, after this you want to play another game of shogi?" he asked and Sakura nodded, she had started playing with the strategist about a week ago and had yet to beat him, but she was getting closer every time.

"Sure, maybe this time I'll beat you, I have some new strategies I want to try" she smiled and nodded to Choji who crunched happily on his chips, he was… large with a white scarf and red swirls on his cheeks, he always had some form of food with him. He offered her some but declined, he smiled ecstatically before digging in to his chips

"Yo Sakura, you saw through the genjustu to?" she heard a familiar voice say; she turned to see Tenten walking towards her with her team following closely behind the weapons mistress.

"Yeah, it was hard to miss" she laughed as the group joined the larger one.

"Yo, so you guys made it through too huh?" some said, as the group came closer Sakura noticed Hinata; Sakura met her through Neji and met Kiba, a member of the Inuzuka clan, and then met Shino, a master of insects and bugs, and got to know them very well.

"Hey Sakura, Akamaru and my sister want you over again, the dogs really like you!" he laughed and Sakura nodded happily.

"As long as your sister cooks Domburi again" she responded and Kiba nodded, everyone gave their 'hello' to each other when a silver haired ninja with glasses came around with a smile that Sakura did not trust.

"You guys should keep your voices down, don't want to attract unwanted attention" he said, Sakura wanted to tell him to 'shove off' but when he pulled out some cards she got curious. He knelt down, pulled three onto the floor and flipped one face up.

"Who are you?" Tenten asked and the ninja in question smiled.

"I'm Kabuto, a sound ninja as you can see," he said gesturing to the sound emblem on his forehead.

"Uchiha Sasuke: top of class done mainly D rank and a few C rank missions, top of class, your elemental chakra is fire and you are very skilled in most fields" he said, after a moments pause he flipped the middle one revealing Naruto's picture.

"Uzumaki Naruto: same as Sasuke in missions but sorely lacks his skill, mainly a head on fighter your quiet good at Kage Bunshin and have a massive amount of chakra" he finished and Naruto looked a little pissed, Sasuke looked smug and Sakura knew the two of them would be the death of her. He flipped the last one.

"Haruno Sakura: D and C missions, excellent chakra control and high intellect, your poor at taijutsu and the more advanced jutsu but you are very good against genjustu" he said and flipped everything back into his deck of cards. Everyone was about to protest to his analyses of Sakura but the pinkette just walked over to the kneeling boy. She knelt right in front of him and smiled a sickly sweet smile at him that promised pain and an almost crazy look in her eyes, she looked very dangerous, evil and the very epitome of scary.

"You might want to update those cards of yours… or they just might get you killed," she said in a cheerful tone but it held an emptiness that scared him as much as his master scared him. She stood up and went back to her group smiling happily, he smirked and stood, he was about to talk but someone went strait for him. A man with his face covered in bandages, except one eye, threw a punch at the sound nin. Kabuto jumped back to avoid the punch but he still ended up hacking blood and had his glasses cracked.

"But the punch never touched him…" Sakura mumbled to herself, she didn't really cared what happened to the distrustful ninja but the knew stranger just showed his hand. Well, a piece of it anyway.

"Alright! I am your first examiner, everyone take your seats in the next room, you _cannot_ sit next to a teammate!" he yelled and Sakura turned back to her group.

"Good luck" she said before she entered the examination room, she took her seat on the farthest right seat in the middle of the center row while Sasuke took a seat in the left row and Naruto had a seat right in the front.

"My name is Ibiki and I will be your examiner, this first examination is a test" the examiner called out "There are ten questions that you will answer in thirty minutes, some of you may have noticed there are only nine on the paper, after your time is up I will give you the tenth question" he finished and everyone was thinking along the lines of 'that's it?' the master interrogator smirked.

"Oh, by the way, if any of you are caught cheating you automatically fail, and if you fail your whole team fails with you" he commented and everyone gasped or complained, Sakura just sighed.  
_'Of course' _she thought before looking at the test sheet; the questions were really hard, at least Chunin level, but not for her. She knows every answer to these questions but… she looked at Naruto.  
_'I am so going to fail'_ went through both Sasuke and Sakura's minds, the timer started and Sakura got to work. She created a crystal and sent over to Naruto's lap, converting the answers to him while she wrote; Sasuke had the Sharingan so she needn't worry about him. Along the way she noticed a floating eye made of sand, she smiled faintly and ignored the small orb as she finished the questions. When she stopped Naruto, Gaara and Sasuke stopped, looks like she had three people copying her.

"All right times up!" Ibiki yelled and everyone put their pens down "Now for the final question, before we start I would like to warn you all, if you fail to answer this question correctly then you will never be able to take the Chunin exams again" he said and everyone was in an up roar.

"If you don't want to take the question you can leave now and try again next year, its your choice, but if you choose this your team goes with you" he said and everyone fell silent as they waited for the first to crack.

"I'm out" someone put they're hand up.

"Me too"

"No thanks"

"Next year" many people raised there hand and left the room, by the end of it there was at least half of them gone. She looked from Ibiki to Naruto to se him shaking; she bit her lip as she watched her teammate.  
Should she give up for him? What about Sasuke? She moved her hand slightly, but before she could even lift it above the desk Naruto put his hand up. Sakura sighed as she thought about how Ino would brag about her being stuck at the academy; those thoughts were cut short as she heard something slam onto a desk.

"I not scared by your question! I can answer whatever question you got!" Naruto yelled and Sakura had put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. She inhaled deeply before smiling in relief as the concept dawned on her; the examiner smirked.

"You pass"

…

…

…

_What?_

* * *

__**you know the gist, review and you'll get more chapters. And for the up-coming chapters I have a little surprise, but I'll save that for another chapter. Thank you for reading!  
**


	8. The Second Test

**So happy... So many chapters up right before exams... _shit_. I hate exams, but the good news is that I only have two! everyone has like five or something, teehee!**

* * *

The whole class was in and uproar, asking questions like 'what about the tenth question?' and 'that's it?' but Sakura just slacked in her chair and sighed happily, she had passed.

"You all chose to stay, even though it risked you losing the chance to become ninja, therefore you pass," he said and everyone paused, sat down and soaked in the fact that they had passed. After a few moments the glass of the window broke and someone burst through, a piece of fabric covering the wall.

"Listen up maggots, I'm Anko the next examiner for the next test! Rest up today and meet me at the entrance of the forest of death, see you in the morning!" she yelled and made a pose, Ibiki came out from behind the giant cloth.

"Your early" he said and Anko laughed a little, the two started chatting but Sakura just tuned them out as she waited to be let out. When they could leave she immediately regrouped with her teammates, Sakura's first question was obvious.

"Were you able to answer anything without me?" she asked and Naruto laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"I answered the tenth question" he said, Sakura paused then laughed.

"True. Come on, I'll treat you to a bowl of ramen" she said and Naruto 'wooped' leaping into the air and ran after Sakura, she called for Sasuke to join them and he caught up to his surrogated sister.

"Thanks Sakura!" he yelled as he dug in, Sakura smiled as she quietly ate her bowl of miso ramen while Sasuke ate the same. Sakura paid for the first round but when she refused to pay for the second Naruto whined.

"But you said-"

"I said I would pay for _a_ bowl of ramen, if you had been listening you would have noticed," she said as she finished off her bowl.

"Thank you for the meal" she told the owner of the small ramen stand before leaving Naruto to wallow in his sorrow… teehee that rhymed.

"So, how'd it go?" she heard a familiar voice ask, Sakura smiled, not looking at him she answered.

"I did very well, Shukaku," she said as she entered her home, Shukaku following close behind, and prepared dinner.

"What you making this time?" he asked peering over her shoulder, she shifted so he couldn't see.

"Food" she retorted cheekily, he pouted and crossed his arms.

"But what kind of food?" he asked again and Sakura giggled.

"Edible food" she said again. He started complaining and eventually Sakura cut in.

"Are you hungry Shukaku?" she laughed when he grumbled.

"Do you have any idea how little Gaara eats? He barely eats anything saying that he would only eat what was necessary," he explained and Sakura thought back to the morning to when she fed him.

"He ate plenty when I cooked breakfast" she said as she continued cooking.

"That's because he likes you're cooking, speaking of which, I have a proposition to make," he said and Sakura turned to him, her hands still cooking.

"You cook for Gaara and you can meet the rest of the tailed demons," he said and Sakura paused, thought about it, and nodded.

"They're not going to try and kill me, will they?" she asked and he laughed, saying nothing will go wrong and Sakura nodded. She finished cooking to show an array of meals, Shukaku thanked her before digging in.

"I knew demons ate a lot but you beat Naruto's appetite" she commented as she finished her rice curry, it was super hot but she had been raised on the stuff so it made no difference to her. Shukaku on the other hand…

"Ow! Dammit that's hot! Ow! How can you eat this?" he yelled as he chugged a whole carton of milk.

"My mother raised me on curry and other spices, this is reasonably mild to me" she said as she popped another spoon full of curry into her mouth, Shukaku looked at her with a look that said 'are you crazy?' but Sakura ignored it.

"So when do I get to meet the others?" she asked as she finished her 'curry of doom' and looked at Shukaku.

"Right now" he grinned as he took her hand and he closed his eyes, she followed suit and she felt her body shift. When the strange feeling stopped she opened her eyes to find that she was not holding anyone's' hand but standing right next to a huge raccoon dog.

"Where are we?" she asked as she looked up at him, he looked down at her and grinned.

"The Gathering" he said and looked forward, she followed his line of vision to see eight other demons right in front of them.

"Hello" she said shyly, moving a little closer to Shukaku, the nine tailed fox demon stepped forward.

"Don't worry, we wont hurt you," he cooed and Sakura gave him a deadpanned look.

"Says the demon that attacked Konoha," she said and everyone laughed, the fox flattened his ears and started mumbling things incoherently.

"I like this girl!" Son Gokū laughed as he stepped forward.

"I am Son Gokū, four tailed beast and master of the lava technique, but you can just call me Gokū," he said and Sakura nodded and smiled. The next demon stepped forward.

"I am Matatabi, two tailed demon, it's a pleasure to meet you," he said and bowed slightly, Sakura mimicked him before standing strait, everyone else introduced themselves in their own way and waited for Sakura to introduce herself.

"My name is Haruno Sakura, creator of the chakra crystal technique," she said and bowed, everyone nodded and kumara smiled at her.

"Sakura-hime, the others have never seen your technique before, care to show them?" he offered and Sakura nodded, she put both hands in front of her and created a rather large crystal, the demons seemed entranced by the crystal smiled. Releasing the crystal the chakra flowed into her and she sighed, glad that she could reabsorb her chakra.

"Not bad…" one of them said, she smiled before feeling a tug inside her, she looked behind her but saw nothing.

"Is anything wrong?" Isobu asked and Sakura turned back to them.

"I felt a tug," she stated and everyone nodded.

"You need to return to the real world" Isobu said and Sakura looked at Shukaku, he nodded and led her back to the real world, she closed her eyes as that same shifting sensation came over her. When she opened her eyes again she was back in her kitchen and Shukaku had gone back to the recesses of his mind and Gaara had returned.

"How did they treat you?" he asked and Sakura beamed at him.

"They were great, I would have never of guessed that demons could be so nice! No offence to Shukaku" she said as she went to her room and changed quickly, Gaara waiting in the hallway, and jumped into bed. She instantly fell a sleep and Gaara quietly made his way inside, he stared at the pinkette at a distance before finally sitting on the edge of the bed and watched her sleeping face.  
_'This is wrong, I know I shouldn't… but… I can't… stop…myself'_ he leaned down slowly, his demon oddly silent, as he features became more perfect as he got closer. His face centimeters from her own, he closed his eyes as his lips lightly touched hers; he pulled back after a moment before he lightly licked his top lip, she tastes like sweet strawberries, he traced the line of her lips while she slept. She sighed, her breath ghosting over his fingertips, he paused as he stared at the pinkette.  
He had noticed how everyone that knew her cared for her, she was like a trap that everyone would gladly be snared into, like she has cast a spell over every living creature but they don't wish to be freed from her spell. How many people have fallen under her spell? And more importantly…  
Has he fallen under it as well? Sakura grumbled as her alarm clock started beeping, she sighed as she pressed every button on the damn machine _but_ it… wouldn't… _shut UP!_  
She grabbed the cursed object and threw it at the wall; it smashed against the vertical surface and splattered about the floor. _Great_… now she has to get a new one, she got up and grabbed her gear; she waltzed out the door with three scrolls tied together on her belt.

"Sakura! You ready?" she heard her knuckle headed surrogate brother yell at the top of his lungs, she sighed as she smiled at him. Sasuke must have called him a dobe or something because before she could respond he started arguing at the raven-haired boy and they were at it again, she shook her head and made her way over to them.

"Hey, Haruno-san" Sakura stopped upon hearing her name; she turned her head to see a familiar blonde heading her way, what was her name again? Tem… Tami… Temari? Yeah! Temari!

"Yes Temari-san?" she asked politely and the blonde waved her hand.

"Don't address me with such formalities, call me 'Temari' or 'Temari-Chan' okay?" she said and Sakura nodded

"Have you seen Gaara since our meeting at all?" she asked and Sakura smiled at her.

"Yes, he has visited often, why?" She inquired curiously and Temari took on a look of shock.

"He has? Has he hurt you at all?" Temari asked hastily, Sakura figured that Temari didn't know about the 'switch' that Shukaku and Gaara have.

"No, in fact he caught me when I tripped after training" the pinkette explained, Temari looked back at Gaara.

"How… why… _what?_" Temari's mind was in a whirl, Sakura shifted her weight to one foot.

"Sorry, I cant tell you at the moment, maybe when everything is sorted out" the smaller of the two offered, Temari smiled and nodded.

"Sure, but I want an explanation" Temari warned playfully and Sakura laughed a bit. They chatted idly until Anko, the crazy examiner, appeared and explained everything:  
this is a survival test, get the heaven and earth scrolls, every team will be given one of said scrolls, you will start at different gates, you have to fight other teams, you have five days to get both scrolls then go to the examination building in the forest, all teammates must be accounted for, you have to sign a contract before beginning in case you die. Doesn't that just _inspire_ confidence?

"Ready… Go!" Anko yelled and the bell went off, every team sprang into the forest, Sakura and her team walked a few feet before jumping to travel by trees.  
They had been traveling for a few hours now but still no sign of the enemy, of any enemy. She was honestly starting to get bored, Sasuke was leading the group with a steady pace but Naruto it seems was losing his patience as well.

"Hey guys can we stop?" Naruto asked and they immediately paused, Sasuke turned to Naruto.

"I need to use the bathroom" he chuckled and Sasuke and Sakura simultaneously face-palmed.

"Fine, just hurry up" he said and Naruto smiled.

"Go behind the tree or something!" Sakura warned before he could even move, Naruto laughed sheepishly and ducked behind a tree, he took a while but eventually returned. Sakura stiffened; something was wrong, something was very, very wrong.

"Sorry it took me so long, I was able to spell my whole name," he laughed but his laughter was cut short when Sasuke threw a kunai at him, he jumped back and Sakura was momentarily surprised but then noticed Naruto's attire. His kunai pouch was on the left side, the wrong side.

"Hey what's wrong with you? Were teammates aren't we?" he yelled as Sakura moved to go to where Naruto disappeared but the fake Naruto threw a kunai her way.

"Where are you going?" he grinned and Sakura glared, she turned to Sasuke and they both nodded. Sasuke would engage the threat while Sakura recovers their missing teammate. Sakura sprinted while Sasuke threw an array of weapons at the enemy, Sakura only had to go three feet past the tree Naruto hid behind to find him tied up on the ground, once she reached him she untied him and helped him up.

"Thanks Sakura-Chan" he said and she smiled at him, but that smile disappeared when the two of them heard an explosion. They both ran to the fight, Sasuke had just escaped an explosion of paper bombs and was now on a branch glaring at the mist nin which was currently standing a good ten meters away.

"Where's your team?" Sakura interrogated, he looked from the Uchiha to the Haruno.

"That's none of your business girly, but I will have to say goodbye, I thought you guys would be an easy kill and we would have the scrolls we need, but I guess that's not the case" he said and he began to jump away "if we meet again I'll kill you" he called out before disappearing through the thicket. They remained still for long while, before Sakura finally let out a sigh.

"Naruto, next time be on your guard" she said as she leapt to the branch Sasuke was located.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" she asked and he showed her his arm, it was badly burnt and may leave a scar if not tended to, Sakura sighed as she asked him to move his chakra around the wound. He did and she worked slowly, carefully, as she crystallized his chakra around the wound, when she finished she sighed with her eyes closed.

"Any better?" she questioned, he let out a relieved sigh.

"Yeah, thanks" he said and she smiled, she had been waiting to try that for a while now and was glad it worked. It should stay like that for a few hours and should be mostly healed by that then, in the mean time it would act as both a painkiller and a piece of armor.

"Alright, lets get moving" Naruto said as he joined them, they all agreed and began they're trek through the forest of death.

* * *

**I don't own Naruto and thank you for reading! R&R please!**


	9. The weakness Of The Crystal

They were currently taking a break, hiding amongst the higher branches, where they were just underneath the roof of the canopy made a good place to see the enemy coming. Sakura gave Naruto a piece of rationed meat and took of sip of water herself, Sasuke's arm was still protected by the crystal and had asked for her to remove it saying it was healed but Sakura couldn't, she didn't know how and he would have to wait until it wore off. Naruto looked down somewhere and Sakura followed his line of sight, she didn't see anything but glared nonetheless, she listened for something, _anything_. That's when it struck her.

"Guys, listen" she said and they did, for a long moment before Naruto spoke.

"I don't hear anything," he said but Sakura didn't look at him, she was busy scanning the world below them.

"Exactly, there isn't a sound, no animals or birds, even the insects have fled" she said and the two froze in realization of her words, they were being watched.

"Sasuke, Sakura, use your eyes" Naruto said and she spared him a praising glance before looking back down, Kurisutarubyū activated, and saw the world in crystal. Every animal had disappeared but there was something, in one of the trees is what looked something like a snake but had a very dark and twisted chakra around it, she embedded a kunai into the tree where it was and the paper bomb attached to it exploded.

"What?" Naruto asked but she didn't look away as the thing began to move.

"Something is in that tree," she said as it began to reveal itself, it was a grass ninja but she was much more frightening. Who, or _what,_ is she?

"Heh, very good, I didn't expect to be found so quickly, does it have something to do with those eyes of yours?" she asked, looking at Sasuke, Sakura had to suppress a growl. The stranger thought it was the Sharingan; she really shouldn't be surprised since only a few knew of her kekkei genkai.

"Or is it you, with the eyes of moving water?" the grass nin said as she looked at Sakura, her eyes widened slightly. When she activates her Kurisutarubyū her eyes look like when light seeps through water; her normal eye color remains the same but the difference are the lines of darker green move fluently around the iris of her eyes, like water.

"Who are you?" Naruto called out and the snake like ninja grinned.

"Your death" she said and Naruto growled, he lunged at her but she summoned a huge snake and it quickly swallowed the orange clad ninja.

"Naruto!" his two teammates screamed. Sakura jumped towards the snake so she could gut it but the grass nin kicked her away in mid air. Sakura landed on a tree branch holding her side, bastard. Sasuke moved to her side and looked at the ninja.

"She's stronger than us," he whispered and Sakura nodded, but something was wrong.

"Too strong to be a genin" she said and he glanced at her, now that she mentioned it she had a point. She _was_ too strong to be a genin.

"Your not a genin are you!" Sakura yelled as she stood up, her chakra had already been dealt with her formally injured side. The grass nin grinned, Sasuke didn't give her time to respond as he shot into action, throwing kunai at her he landed on the same branch as the enemy. The ninja had dodged them and seemed to be waiting for his next move, Sasuke took the opportunity and tangled the grass nin in the wires that were connected to the kunai, his hands sped through the necessary hand signs as he performed a katon jutsu, the grass ninja was engulfed in flames.

"Did I get him?" Sasuke muttered to him self, Sakura jumped down to his level, her eyes glaring as she saw through the smoke with her Kurisutarubyū.

"Unfortunately, no" she whispered and he growled, the smoke cleared to reveal something they did not expect. The ninja standing before them had half her face peeling off; Sakura felt her stomach churn as the enemy smiled all to sweetly.

"Not bad, though I must admit I expected better from an Uchiha," she said, but her- _his_ voice had changed, it wasn't a girls voice anymore it was… that _thing_ was a _guy?_

"Now tell me girl, where did get those eyes? I have never seen them before" he said and Sakura glared.

"I'm not telling you!" she yelled as she ran for him, she twisted her chakra so she would have thirty seconds to dispel it otherwise face the consequences of corrupted chakra. She put her whole body into one punch but he grabbed her arm and flew her into the air, he then kicked her in the stomach and she hit the trunk of the tree. She slid down and landed on the branch, Sakura fell to her knees as she gripped her stomach. She looked up to see the snake eyed man standing in front of her; he kneeled down in front of her and cupped her chin so she looked directly into his eyes.

"Did actually you think that would work?" he chuckled and she smirked, he froze as his body began to shake.

"Yes actually" she said as he fell onto his side, her eyes showed that he was dispelling the corrupted chakra and that it would only last a few seconds.

"Sasuke, run!" she yelled as she grabbed his hand and followed the trail of the giant snake that ate Naruto, releasing her Kurisutarubyū. She could feel the snake nin had regained the ability to move, she had already let go of Sasuke's hand, and she sped up in her panic. She snake demon appeared out of the blue and Sakura ended up on it's head, she looked into one of it's eyes for a long while before it spoke.

"You are a Haruno yes?" it asked, the 's' being prolonged due to it being a snake, Sakura nodded. Upon seeing the nod it began hacking, it then coughed Naruto and he was covered in slime.

"He is your friend, yes?" it- he asked again and she smiled.

"Yes he is! Thank you!" she said, her smile didn't last long as she felt the snake master approach. She began panicking again at the thought of facing that monster.

"Dammit! Sasuke, Naruto we need to move _now!_" she yelled, before she could move the snake offered her a branch to step onto, she landed on the tree branch and bowed quickly to the snake.

"Thank you for releasing my friend" she said and leapt to a higher branch.

"Your welcome Haruno-sama, I must leave now or surely be punished by Orochimaru-sama" he said as he bowed and disappeared. She turned away and jumped to her teammates, they were about to get away when the snake ninja, Orochimaru, caught up with them.

"Thought you could get away?" he said as he threw a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it, they scattered and he went for Naruto first. Holding him by the neck and his fingers were lit by small purple flames, Sakura didn't know what he was going to do but it couldn't be good, before he could strike the fox host she threw a chakra crystal at his hand. It struck his hand and encased it in chakra, he looked from an unconscious Naruto to his hand and then, finally, to her.

"What is this?" he hissed, literally, and she froze. He had a teammate hostage and was now solely focused on her… wait! He is focused on _her,_ which means Sasuke can sneak up and at the least slow Orochimaru down.

"Like I said before, I'm not telling you" she said smartly and jumped back, she saw Sasuke in the corner of her eye but… he wasn't moving, what is he doing?

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" she called but Sasuke didn't answer, all he did was shiver. She spared a glance over his way, her eyes widened.  
_'Dammit! Genjutsu'_ her Inner said and she called out to Sasuke.

"Sasuke, it's a genjustu! Snap out of it!" she called but he didn't move, didn't _blink_. Orochimaru smirked wickedly as she tried to save her friend.

"There's no use, he can't hear you," he said and she turned to him, eyes frozen a cold glare.

"What do you want?" she demanded, this goes far beyond getting some measly scroll and there was no way that this was part of the exam.

"I want Sasuke," he said and the first thought that went through her mind was _'pedophile' _but she knew that it wasn't about his fetish, hopefully.

"You've got to be kidding me…" she mumbled, she jumped to another branch and landed in front of Sasuke, standing protectively she glared at him.

"That's not going to happen" she announce and the snake nin smiled all the more. Throwing away Naruto Sakura was only given a few moments to do many things. She threw a kunai and it snagged on Naruto's baggy jumper, stopping the fall, as she tried to produce a shield in time.

She failed.

He pushed her aside and bit Sasuke at the junction between neck and shoulder, the boy screamed in pain as he fell to one knee, Sakura froze; Naruto was unconscious and tangling by a kunai and Sasuke was in paralyzed and in pain all because of _him._  
Sakura felt rage thunder through her veins, her Kurisutarubyū automatically activated and her crystal shattered.

"You _bastard_" her voice sounded as though there was multiple of her speaking at the same time, her green chakra swirled around her wildly, and her hair came undone and flew around her. She growled low and dangerous, this man was going to _pay!_  
She came at him with inhuman speed, he flew backwards, then forwards and in every direction while in mid air. Pain coursing through him every time he was pushed to a different direction, Sakura then appeared above him and forced her heel into his gut; he hacked up blood as a crater formed around where he landed.  
_'What is this power?'_ was all he could think before he was kneed in the ribs, she didn't give him time to move as she flipped forward, grabbing his hair in the process, and threw him into a boulder. The boulder itself cracked under the force of the sudden impact.

"What _are_ you?" he hacked; he didn't seem all that scared, more like thrilled, he had found another vessel. She glared at him with a look that actually made a cold shiver run down his all to flexible spine.

"Your death" she mimicked as she threw kunai that was covered in her crystal. He dodged them easily enough but did not expect them to explode, he felt the broken shards enter his back and he hissed in pain, he staggered before feeling a familiar pain; she had manage to paralyze him again, but this was different. He wasn't able to move at all and he couldn't even move his chakra to dispel it faster, he was at her mercy. Sakura watched as he fell to the ground, limp.

She glared at the man as she raised her hand, her fist clenched around something invisible. Her green crystal began forming and a long staff appeared, twice her height, and a large blade appeared. She pulled the blade down and maneuvered it from above her to behind her, a strong wind swirled around her before pulsing outward, thick layers of powerful chakra cloaked her body and swirled like a protective shield.  
She raised her scythe over her shoulder, using both hands, and was about to deliver it down upon the man whose chakra resembled a snake.

"Stop!" she heard a familiar voice yell; she turned her head to see Anko with four Anbu with her.

"He is to be taken in and interrogated, you take you teammates and get out of here," she said and Sakura glared slightly, the others stiffened as her swirling chakra reflected her emotions. But instead of fighting them her scythe broke into pieces, starting at both ends the crystal broke away and disappeared. She nodded to them before grabbing both her teammates and jumping away, the Anbu team watched as the pink haired ninja jumped away with amazing speed for a ninja, despite the extra weight.

"That's Haruno Sakura right?" Anko asked, one of the Anbu nodded, and she laughed,

"I feel sorry for anyone who ends up fighting her," she muttered and the Anbu were surprise, though they didn't show it. Anko never felt sorry for _anyone_ so this was a surprise, they turned their attention to the snake master.

"Well this is interesting" one of the Anbu muttered.

"What?" Anko asked, the Anbu didn't look at her but explained nonetheless.

"His chakra networks have been completely frozen to the point where he can barely breath, it seems that some sort of crystal is doing this" he explained and Anko sighed, this was just going to cause more work. They picked up a limp Orochimaru and made their way to the highest security cell they had.

Sakura bit down another chakra pill, it had been two days since the fight with Orochimaru, three if you include the day they actually fought him, and they only had two days left. She sat down under a giant tree that gave a hut like feel, the roots had pushed up the body and provided a cage-like shelter with one big entrance; Sakura sat there watching her surroundings with tired eyes. She could use her chakra crystal again but that would make it to easy for her to be detected, so she uses chakra pills, but even with those bland pills she is still tired. Sakura twitched when she heard a twig snap, her sharp eyes caught sight of something small.  
A squirrel, or a chipmunk, she wasn't sure but she didn't care, she threw a kunai and it landed at the animals feet, just in case. The small ball of fur squeaked and ran off, leaving her be. A long while past before she sensed something, and it wasn't friendly.

"Some lookout you turned out to be, can't even stay awake" she heard a females voice comment snidely. Sakura was wide-awake now, adrenalin coursing through her at the sight of an enemy.

"This should be easy enough, move aside and let us fight Sasuke or we'll kill you too," one of the males said, his voice was laced with confidence. Sakura glared, like hell she was just going to lay down after everything that has happened to her, she hasn't had a wink of sleep but she was still going to fight to the death if she had to. She stood and waited for them to fall for her trap, they walked forward but the cocky guy stopped them.

"Kin stop, this moss doesn't naturally grow on clearings like this, it usually grows on trees" he said as he smirked at the girl sitting under the ancient tree.  
_'Not good'_ was the first thing that went through her mind but as they jumped over the moss she cut a wire placed just behind her, they heard a deep groaning sound as a large tree trunk came swinging in their direction.

"Pathetic" the bandaged one muttered before he punched the trunk with the device on his arm, as expected it shattered, but what he did not expect was a pink haired girl to appear amongst the debris posed in a position to hit him, and hit him she did. Hard. He crashed into the hard soil faster than anyone could react, she didn't hit his face but his torso. He could feel the broken bones and could still feel the painful buzz of the chakra-induced attack, the pinkette landed gracefully on the ground and waited for their next move.  
The overconfident male ninja moved first using a technique called 'Decapitating Airwaves' which Sakura avoided by jumping up, the female member threw senbon while Sakura was in mid-air. Flipping backwards she avoided them and landed on all fours staring at her enemies.

"Not bad" the bandaged one muttered, she looked back and forth between the three. Kin moved first, throwing senbon she expected the pinkette to at least move out of the way but instead she just swatted them away with her hand. This surprised the sound trio.

"How did you…" Kin trailed off before looking to her overconfident partner

"Zaku, give my senbon a boost" she said and he nodded, she threw a handful of senbon and he increased the speed with his wind specialty, Sakura this time ducked under the flying projectiles, the needles embedding themselves into the roots of the tree.

"Dosu, help us out!" Kin yelled. Dosu's single visible eye crinkled showing that he was smirking, having Kakashi as your teacher did have a few extra pros. the bandaged man didn't move from his spot, instead he tapped the strange device on his arm, her ears rung in pain but that was nothing to burning pain coming from her collarbones. The crystal was vibrating and it was causing a lot of friction and pain, Sakura fell to her knees as she bit back a scream.

"This seems to affect you more than most, ninja" Dosu chuckled while his partners smirked, Sakura glared at them while she tried to figure a way out of this. But it's hard to think with that painful ringing in her ears, she couldn't think strait and it was getting more painful the longer the ringing went on. Suddenly Sakura felt a painful jolt as her head was pulled back, the ringing had stopped and it became easier to think but she was completely immobilized. Sakura tilted her head to see Kin holding her ponytail in a tight grip.

"What pretty hair, unfortunately it won't do you much good here" she chuckled "Did you honestly think you could beat us? There's no way a weakling like you could win" the dark haired girl finished, that was their first mistake. Sakura froze for a long while, before she began shaking. Zaku chuckled thinking that she was frightened and would start begging for her life, second mistake.

"Kin, just kill the bitch already, I want to see if that Uchiha is really all that" Zaku called out casually, Kin smirked but paused when she felt the girl in her grasp move. She peered down only to smirk; the pinkette had pulled out a kunai.

"That isn't going to work on me" she said confidently, Sakura smirked up at her, something in those green eyes made the sound nin falter.

"It's not for you" Sakura moved and cut her hair, kin stumbling back as her hairband fell out. Sakura stood and glared at the two boys in front of her; if crystals vibrate from sound waves then she might be able to use that against them. Sakura broke her crystal again and felt the energy flood her system, before Dosu could activate his sound attack she sent her chakra to her feet and pulsed it over the surface of the earth.  
_'Secret crystal technique: crystal field!'_ she screamed the knew technique in her mind as the ground became covered in green crystal, the enemies jumped up to avoid the strange material and landed safely on the ground. Sakura was standing in front of the entrance to the risen tree that made the make shift hut, standing strait ready for them. Zaku, having the least amount of patience, moved first. He ran strait at her ready but had to change his path as a giant crystal shot up from the ground, sticking up at an odd angle everyone stared.

"What the hell is this?" he yelled looking from the crystal to the green-eyed girl.

"_My_ bloodline" Sakura said before more crystal 'spikes' came out chasing the sound ninja, he jumped away but noticed that the spikes were chasing his teammates. They were eventually forced together surrounded by the chakra crystals, but she didn't attack. Instead she jumped onto one of the higher crystals, crouching casually she stared down at them.

"Give me your scroll and I'll let you live," she said but she noticed the body language of Dosu, Sakura saw this and jumped back as he tapped his sound device. That was there final mistake. The sound vibrated and amplified from the crystals surrounding them and they screamed out in pain, Sakura winced as it hurt her too but not as much as it was hurting them. The crystals began to crack, the pressure escalating, before shattering into pieces; Sakura covered her eyes as smoke covered the clearing.

Sakura coughed as she looked through the smoke, watching the unmoving bodies she approached carefully. Deeming it safe she rummaged through there bags and found the scroll she needed, reabsorbing her crystals she felt refreshed but her energy drained when she re-sealed it back into it's crystal state.  
She allowed some chakra to flow through her body so she wouldn't collapse. Sakura froze suddenly as she felt a malevolent chakra; she turned to see Sasuke with half his body covered by black markings and dark chakra swirling around him. He stared at her and she did the same, she wanted to move to break this spell but at the same time dare not to. Finally Sasuke moved, walking over to her, he crouched onto one knee and lightly brushed away some strands of her, now short, pink hair from her eyes.

"What happened?" he asked and Sakura repressed a shiver from the evil feeling of the chakra.

"Sasuke, power down, we don't want to attract any more enemies" she diverted as she stood up, she wobbled slightly and Sasuke was immediately they're to hold her steady.

"Only if you tell me what happened" he replied and Sakura nodded with a sigh, she heard Naruto groaning slightly and smiled slightly.

"I'll tell you on the way, come on" she said as she moved to pick Naruto up and carry him piggyback style.

"Sakura…" Sasuke growled slightly, Sakura looked him strait in the eye.

"I had to use my chakra crystal technique which means anyone within a three kilometer radius should of been able to sense it and will no doubt come looking, if we leave now we might be able to avoid them, therefor I'll tell you on the way" she explained and he nodded, but he did grumble a little. He packed up everything quickly, powering down as he did so, and followed Sakura through the forest. They only had until tomorrow.


	10. The Preliminaries And Another Quirk

**Did this take too long? I'm sorry, I'm preparing for a camp and have been really stressed out. As usual I don't own Naruto (much to my disappointment) and this is a non-massacre fic so yeah. Enjoy!**

* * *

It was currently night time, the group moving swiftly through the trees in the night, Naruto long healed from his battle and moving along side Sakura. Sasuke as the arrowhead of the team, his Sharingan activated to spy for any enemies nearby. Sakura looked at his shoulder where he was bitten. She was worried about her teammate and wanted to know if he was all right, but she knows that his Uchiha pride would not allow her to find out by just asking him, she was going to have to tell Kakashi.

"How much longer?" Naruto asked quietly, he was getting smarter every day in her eyes, Sakura looked his way for a small second before answering.

"If all goes well we should be there before dawn," she said as she landed and pushed off from another branch. She looked ahead, the night not affecting her vision at all.

"Sakura, activate your Kurisutarubyū in case someone is hiding in the trees again" Sasuke ordered and she obliged, activating her kekkei genkai she scanned the trees, waiting for anything that may prove to be a threat.

"Guys we've traveling for _hours_" Naruto whined, Sakura was about to tell him to shut but she suddenly stopped, both boys followed her actions. "Sakura?" Sasuke warily.

"Naruto's right, we _have_ been traveling for hours yet we haven't as so much as passed a clearing" Sakura said in a hushed tone, Naruto looked a little confused but it dawned on Sasuke pretty quickly.

"Genjustu" he muttered under his breath but both of his comrades heard clearly. They nodded to each other and Sakura undid the genjustu, the trees changed and the sky turned a lighter shade of blue, the building was visible as well. They nodded and moved to continue their journey when an enemy team blocked their path; they commanded that they give them the scrolls. Sakura just sighed; they were running out of time.

"Naruto, Kage Bunshin?" she asked when she turned to him, he grinned and nodded before utilizing the shadow clone technique. As the group fought off the hyper active blonde Sakura addressed Sasuke.

"Sasuke, can you use a fire technique to finish them off when Naruto's done?" she asked and he nodded in satisfaction, probably happy he wasn't being left out, and the two watched the free show. When the clones vanished Sakura called out.

"Naruto, move!" and move he did, Sasuke finished the group quickly and Naruto had just gotten out of range.

"Could you wait for me to get a safe distance before you fry the place?" he complained when he was close enough, Sasuke scoffed.

"Then they would've got away, dobe" he retorted and Sakura stepped in to play peacemaker once again.

"Ok, were done, now lets go, I'll lead" she said as she jumped a branch higher and continued moving, the boys gave each other one quick glare before following their female member. They reached the checkpoint just before the sun began to rise over the horizon.

"So what now?" Naruto asked in his usual fashion. His to companions shrugged, Sakura read the inscription on the wall in front of them.

"Looks like we need to open the scrolls at the same time" Sakura took out her heaven scroll and Naruto took out his earth scroll, both giving said scrolls to Sasuke he unraveled them. The was a loud 'boom' and a cloud of smoke appeared in front of them, they stared in amazement as they gazed at a familiar face.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto called out in excitement. Sakura smiled in relief as she relaxed, she thought it was another enemy, being in that forest has made her a bit jumpy.

"Well done you three, you can go inside now, there's food, water and medical equipment, and some beds as well" he smiled and they all nodded, when their old teacher disappeared Sakura and Naruto cheered and Sasuke actually smiled.

"Come on, I'll check out your wounds and we'll get some rest," Sakura said happily as they came into the infirmary, truth was that _they_ were going to get rest but Sakura wouldn't. She would no doubt go into another coma-like state and miss whatever was left; she gave her boys some disinfectant and wrapped the wounds that needed bandaging. And she let them just sleep on the hospital beds while she had a decent meal, she heard the door slide open and immediately recognized the smell of sand.

"How did you go?" she asked quietly before taking another bite, she saw the redheads shadow before he came into view. He seemed to be inspecting her for injuries but those were long healed, she sighed and put her chopsticks down.

"I'm fine Gaara," she said smiling at him, but the face he pulled told her he didn't believe a word she said. He bent down to her level, touching foreheads he looked into her eyes for a long time.

"You need rest," he said and Sakura sighed again, closing her eyes she explained to him why she wasn't sleeping.

"If I sleep now I won't wake up for a few days, it's the price for using the crystal technique, with or without using the Kurisutarubyū" she explained, he frowned at her. She was pushing herself to far, she could collapse at any moment for all he knew, and she seemed to sense his discontent and laughed slightly.

"Don't worry, my crystal reserve will last me a lot longer" she said but he still gave her that look "And I'll go strait to bed once the second exam is finished, okay dad?" she joked, he pulled a face and she laughed. Taking another bite of her food she listened to her comrades breathing.

"So when did you get out of the forest of death?" she asked casually, he was about to answer when his siblings walked in.

"The same day it started" Kankuro replied and Sakura looked at him with wide eyes.

"Really?" she asked, turning to Gaara for confirmation; he nodded and the gleam in her eyes made him very happy at impressing her. Temari noticed the elevation in her youngest brothers mood and smirked, she knew just what to do.

"Well, me Kankuro have got to go, we'll get you when everyone is called" she said as she dragged a whining Kankuro, Sakura was somewhat worried he would wake her teammates but they didn't, luckily. Gaara saw what his sister was planning and reminded himself to thank her later on. Sakura yawned slightly as she stood from her seat and sat on one of her teammates beds, her body still ached slightly from the sound ninja's attacks but she ignored that in favor of watching over her teammates.  
_'I didn't even get to use one of my three scrolls, damn' _Sakura thought but brushed it aside, she felt her back heat up and turned to see Gaara staring at her. She tilted her head slightly but otherwise did not question it, looking back at her comrades as they stirred and, eventually, woke.

"Morning Sakura-Chan" Naruto mumbled as he sat up, Sasuke doing the same thing just without the title. She smiled at them and stood, she went back over to the table and grabbed them some food, turning around she gave them their meal and they thanked her.

"Sakura, why is Gaara here?" Sasuke asked before swallowing a spoonful of tomato soup, Naruto chowing down his ramen in the background but even he was listening.

"Oh, he heard that we had finished and came to visit" she said and he glanced at her with skeptical eyes.

"But he doesn't know any of-" he paused as his eyes widened; he saw how the redhead looked at his surrogated sister. No way, no way in _hell!_ That bastard was staring at Sakura like he bloody _owned_ her!

"Do you two know each other?" Naruto asked lightly, he picked it up as well but wanted to make sure before he jumped to conclusions, when it came to his sister he was surprisingly smart.

"Yes actually, we get along really well- Sasuke why are you glaring?" she asked and his gaze shifted to her, softening as he did so.

"Nothing, can Naruto and me have a talk with Gaara?" he asked and he knew that Sakura got the meaning. She nodded and walked outside the room and went to talk with one of the girls.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Naruto growled out, Gaara raised an invisible eyebrow. Sasuke clenched his fists.

"Don't even think about trying anything with Sakura," he warned but Gaara just smirked, the glint in his eyes told them they weren't going to like the words he was about to speak.

"I already have," he stated remembering the stolen kiss. He closed his eyes as he remembered the moment; the two boys were trying so very hard not to kill the sand master.

"What did you do?" Sasuke growled.

"Nothing she didn't deny" he said and it wasn't a total lie, she just wasn't awake to deny anything. Naruto looked ready to explode when Sakura came in, smiling as she looked at the three.

"It's time," she stated and everyone nodded, Sakura walked in front while the boys walked behind. They reached a small arena like room and joined the others; lined up in rows in front of the third Hokage as he addressed them.

"Congratulations on making it this far" he said and began rambling on about the Chunin exams and the role of a ninja and the nations that had ninja and blah, blah, blah. When he finished his ranting he looked at everyone.

"Due to there being so many of you we will be hosting preliminary rounds, the screen above us will determine who you will be facing, there will be supervisor to decide who wins the match, you can surrender if you so choose. Now, whoever feels that they cannot fight say so now and you may leave" he finished and Sakura felt three pairs of eyes digging into her, she resisted the erg to sigh. Sure, their concern was endearing but now it was beginning to get annoying.  
A few people left but otherwise most remained, that slimy bastard Kabuto left so that was a plus. Everyone watched the screen as it flicked through names randomly, after a short time it finally landed on two names.

_Akado Yoroi vs. Uchiha Sasuke _

Sakura had no idea who he was but at the moment she didn't care, walking up onto the balcony where the match could be viewed, she watched the two men get into battle positions.  
She felt a familiar presence and immediately nodded at her teacher as he walked to her side, as the battle proceeded she told her sensei about the mark on Sasuke's neck. She paused when Sasuke yelled as the man gripped her teammates face, blue chakra glowing on the opponents' hand.

"Your chakra is mine now!" he yelled but Sasuke managed to get out of his hold, seeing Sasuke able to fight freely she turned back to Kakashi. He asked questions and she answered them, as best she could.

"The victor, Uchiha Sasuke!" Genma called out, Sasuke panted and gripped his shoulder where the curse mark resided. Kakashi jumped down and led Sasuke away, the next few names were called and the victors were announced:

Kin vs. Shikamaru, victor: Shikamaru.

Temari vs. Tenten, victor: Tenten.

Shino vs. Zaku, victor: Shino.

Kankuro vs. Misumi victor: Kankuro.

Hinata vs. Neji, victor: Neji.

Dosu vs. Chouji, victor: Dosu

When Naruto's fight came up against Kiba Sakura, like during the rest of the fights, remained silent. After all, she was friends with all of them and didn't know who to vote for, she watched as Naruto wasn't given enough time to create any jutsu and was constantly beat to the ground. But Naruto managed to win, granted it was a stroke of pure luck and definitely not something anyone would want a repeat of but it was a victory nonetheless.  
The screen began shuffling through the remaining names, Sakura watched in mild interest. Her name appeared in the first space, her attention peaked as she watched the second space pass through many names. When the name was finally chosen Sakura couldn't help but stare.

_Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino_

Sakura stared in disbelief at the screen, she was to face off against Ino? Well, it could have been worse. A _lot_ worse.

"Yeah, this is gonna be easy!" Ino yelled out in obvious confidence, Sakura sighed at her friends' antics. If she didn't know any better she would believe that Ino was related to Naruto, she heard Ino call out for her to get in the arena and Sakura did. Jumping down she landed gracefully in front of Ino before standing in a strait, relaxed, position she waited for the fight to begin.

"Fight!" Ino threw a handful of kunai as she jumped backwards, Sakura side stepped them and stared lazily at the blonde.  
_'I think Shikamaru is starting to rub off on me'_ Sakura thought as Ino moved to use taijutsu, which Sakura matched perfectly.

"What the hell Sakura! It's like your not even trying!" Ino yelled angrily, Sakura decided it was her turn to taunt her friend.

"I don't have to"Sakura stated, this made Ino pause, Sakura took advantage of her friends shock, she jumped back to the other side of the arena and pulled out one of her three scrolls. She opened the scroll with one hand, the scroll had many symbols neatly written on it but the one that caught everyone's eye was the inscription for 'eagle' in the center, Sakura lifted her right arm as her left held the scroll.

"Crystal summon. Classification: Eagle" Sakura said, afterwards there was a surge of chakra and a large puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared a large, green, crystal eagle settled on Sakura's raised arm. Ino and everyone else was surprised at what the pinkette just did, Ino got over her shock and smirked.

"That's it? Some stupid bird? Ha!" Ino laughed at Sakura's creation.

"Well, this 'stupid bird' is completely under my control, and is all I need to win" Sakura stated calmly as she let the bird fly, it soared before plummeting towards Ino. The blonde screamed as the bird swooped, cutting her speeds the human eye cannot see it continued this until Ino managed to hit it with a kunai and explosive tag.

"Crystal summon evolution: second stage, Griffin" Sakura muttered and the broken crystal restored itself into the eagle before growing in size and morphing into a large griffin. When it was finished it lifted its wings as it let out a screech that filled the room with an eerie silence before folding its wings, the creature took no notice as it stared at Ino for a long moment before it charged. It rammed its head into Ino's stomach, Ino was winded as well as flew into the wall; a small crater appeared around the blonde, she didn't make a sound as she fell to the earth unconscious.

"The victor, Haruno Sakura!" Genma called out and Sakura whistled to her griffin, the creature returned to her side before vanishing back into the scroll. She jumped up to the railing and shifted a little at the intense gazes she was receiving from everyone. Sakura put her arms against the rail as she rested her weight against it, she watched as they led Ino away on a stretcher, her eyes saddened at the image but when she uses her chakra crystals she really only sees three things: enemy, ally and neutral, which were usually civilians. It seems she has discovered another quirk in her technique.

"Sakura-Chan! That was spectacular! I hope we can spare sometime soon so I can test my skill against your hawk!" he exclaimed and Sakura chuckled.

"It's an eagle, Lee" Sakura corrected with an air of knowledge, Lee laughed and apologized before they heard the 'beep' of the computer. Telling everyone who would fight the next match.

_Rock Lee vs. Subaku No Gaara_

No one moved, no one spoke, hell no one _dared_ to speak with the atmosphere that was quickly infesting the arena. Lee versus Gaara, Sakura was at an impasse. How could she cheer both on? She couldn't, she would just have to watch.

The battle took a while, or was very short, Sakura couldn't tell. She watched as Gaara walked away with scratches and blood that was both his and someone else's, she turned to Lee and saw his battered and broken body. She turned away, she didn't want to see a comrade in that state, but she would visit him in the hospital.

* * *

**Usual, good or bad? if so tell me so I can improve, Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day (or night if your reading this late) and FREE COOKIES TO ALL!**


End file.
